Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what legal advice her Department has received on meeting data protection requirements for data held on the national pupil database that relates to former pupils with whom schools have no contact.

The Department seeks legal advice as and when necessary.

The Department has legislative powers in section 537A of the Education Act 1996 to collect information on individual pupils. Pursuant to section 537A (9) ‘individual pupil information’ means information relating to and identifying individual pupils or former pupils at any school within section 537A (1).