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Written question asked by Tom Morrison (Liberal Democrat) on Thursday, 8 May 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 12 May 2025. It was answered by Stephen Morgan (Labour) on Friday, 30 May 2025 on behalf of the Department for Education.


Home Education

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps she plans to take to ensure that home educators' right to privacy is protected, in the context of the proposed home schooling register.

Answer

The department takes its data protection obligations seriously and is committed to high standards of information security, privacy and transparency. All data received by the department, including as part of the children not in school (CNIS) registers, will be processed in accordance with UK-GDPR principles. No individual personal data from CNIS registers will be published by the department.

The department is conducting a Data Protection Impact Assessment and are consulting with the Information Commissioner’s Office to ensure all data protection risks have been considered and appropriate mitigation are in place before any processing of data has begun. The Data Protection Impact Assessment will be reviewed on a regular basis and updated as required.

Parents have the right under UK-GDPR to object to how their data is used. However, this right is not absolute. If the department or other agencies outlined in the Bill have compelling, legitimate grounds to continue using the parent’s data that outweigh the parent’s rights, they can refuse the parent’s request.

We will outline in future statutory guidance to local authorities how they should inform parents about their rights around data sharing and processing at the point of registration and/or providing updates for the registers.


Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
50978
Session
2024-26
Related items
Pupils: Attendance
Wednesday, 12 November 2025
Written questions
House of Lords
Subjects
Home education Privacy Registration
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk