We pressed the Department on when it hoped to eliminate the disadvantage gap completely. It told us that no country in the world had completely eliminated its 10 ERS0003 The Children and Young People’s Mental Health Coalition page 1; ERS0005 Young Minds pages 1–3; ERS0006 Adoption UK pages 2 and 4 11 Qq 60, 62 12 C&AG’s Report, para 3.16 13 Q 28 14 ERS0001 NASUWT, the Teacher’s Union, pages 2–3; ERS0002 Action Tutoring, pages 2–3; ERS0007 The Tutor Trust, pages 2–3 15 Q 28 16 Q 28 17 Qq 29–30 Education recovery in schools in England 9 disadvantage gap so it was reluctant to commit to a date. However, the Department said that it should be able to reduce the disadvantage gap at least as quickly as it had done in the 10 years before the COVID-19 pandemic, and that it ought to set itself the challenge of going as fast, or faster, in closing the gap as it had done previously.18 We note, however, that this would mean potentially taking as much as another decade to get back to the position before the pandemic. Pupils’ absence from school