Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate his Department has made of the number of schools that have asked parents to donate towards activities that are part of the national curriculum in the last 12 months.

Information regarding how many schools ask parents for donations is not held centrally. Schools’ financial returns show that income from donations and voluntary funds has remained steady at about 0.7% of schools’ overall budgets since 2011/12.