Labour plans to tackle school absence in England with home-school register

Legislation would put legal duty on councils to keep register of children not in school amid historically high absence levels

A Labour government would legislate for a compulsory national register of home-schooled children as part of a package of measures designed to tackle the problem of persistent absence in schools in England.

The proposed legislation would place a legal duty on councils to keep a register of all children who are not in school, and on parents to provide information about their child's education at home.