Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether (a) weekday evenings, (b) Saturdays and (c) Sundays are classified as normal school hours for the purposes of the Government's consultation entitled Children not in school: proposed legislation, launched on 2 April 2019.

​The purpose of the proposed register is to enable local authorities to track the main daytime weekday educational settings for children in scope, and to take action if it appears that a suitable education is not being received in usual school hours. This purpose would not be served by bringing into coverage the register activities carried on in places or at times not relevant to determining suitability, or by including places which are simply hosting educational visits rather than providing tuition and it is not our intention to do so.

Issues such as the definition of usual school hours, and what is a relevant setting for the purposes of providing local authorities with information about children on the proposed register of children not in school, will be considered based on responses received to the consultation, which closes on 24 June. Implementation issues such as these are an important part of the consultation, information for which is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/children-not-in-school.