Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will make an estimate of the number of children who do not speak English as a first language.

The department publishes information on whether a pupil’s first language is known or believed to be other than English. This data can be found in the ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication, which is based on the January school census. The most recent figures are available here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics.

A pupil is recorded to have English as an additional language if they are exposed to a language at home that is known or believed to be other than English. This measure is not a measure of English language proficiency or a good proxy for recent immigration.