Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to ensure provisions in the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Bill maintain data protection requirements.

The department recognises its responsibility to ensure the highest standards of data privacy and transparency in respect of personal data, and we are ensuring that this is prioritised as the Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill progresses.

We are ensuring that measures outlined in the Bill align with data protection principles, as set out in the Data Protection Act 2018, UK General Data Protection Regulations (UK GDPR) and the Data (Use and Access) Act 2025.

The department has met its obligation under Article 36(4) of UK GDPR to consult with the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) on all measures involving the use of personal data. We continue to engage with the ICO for measures relating to the single unique identifier and the children not in school.

The department is engaging with the ICO to ensure that data protection risks identified are properly mitigated and will publish summaries of the assessments once they are complete.