Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to respond to the recommendations in the report entitled, Elitist Britain 2019, published by the Social Mobility Commission in June 2019.

We welcome the publication of the Social Mobility Commission’s (SMC) important report and the work that Dame Martina Milburn and her commissioners are doing to promote social mobility across the United Kingdom.

We give careful consideration to the work of the SMC. However, in keeping with other SMC reports, we do not plan to publish a formal government response.

Professions like law, politics and journalism have been dominated by independently schooled people. By making sure that our state schools offer a comparable education to private schools, we will drive down these inequalities.

The gap between state funded schools and independent schools has never been smaller. 85% of state funded schools are now rated good or outstanding, compared to 66 % in 2010. Academies across the country, like Brampton Manor in East London, are rivalling the results of prestigious private schools.

A range of reforms focusing on strengthening state education has driven this. Phonics is helping early literacy; more pupils leave primary school meeting the expected standards in maths and English and our reformed GCSEs make sure 16-year-olds have the knowledge parents expect.