Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government whether parental consent was obtained by school attendance officers before parents were sent letters by researchers for the study entitled Unidentified Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis is a major cause of school absence: surveillance outcomes from school-based clinics, published by the British Medical Journal in 2011.

The department has no direct knowledge of the study entitled ‘Unidentified Chronic Fatigue Syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis is a major cause of school absence: surveillance outcomes from school-based clinics’, published by the British Medical Journal in 2011 or any activity undertaken by schools in connection with this study.