Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children and young people of (a) primary and (b) secondary school age his Department estimates are outside of the mainstream education system.

The number of pupils in each school type is published by age in the national statistics publication ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’.

A table is available at the following link and includes pupils in special schools and pupil referral units: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/data-tables/permalink/e30f2a37-0ebb-43af-87a4-f31edf088433.

The release also provides information on pupils attending local authority funded alternative provision: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.

The Department does not collect data on the number of children and young people educated otherwise than at a school, such as home education. This data is held by local authorities.