Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if she will hold discussions with her counterparts in (a) Scotland, (b) Wales and (c) Northern Ireland on how best to assist young people in socially deprived communities across the UK to obtain higher grades in core school subjects.

Officials engage regularly with their counterparts in the devolved administrations on topics of mutual interest and concern. Addressing disadvantage was the topic of a recent four nations workshop facilitated by the British Council. It will also be a theme of the International Summit on the Teaching Profession to be co-hosted by the UK and Scottish Governments in March 2017, in partnership with the OECD and Education International, the global federation of teachers’ unions.