Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many unrecorded or illegal school exclusions were reported to her Department in the last academic year.

The Department does not routinely collect data on unrecorded or illegal exclusions.

There is a statutory process to follow when pupils are formally excluded from their school. Where an exclusion decision is challenged and an independent review panel (IRP) is appointed, the Department collects and publishes data on whether panels decide to uphold the exclusion decision, recommend that the governing body reconsider their decision, or quash the decision and direct that the governing body/academy trust considers the exclusion again:

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england-2015-to-2016 (table 12). One of the reasons that an IRP could direct the governing body/academy trust to reconsider is if they believe the exclusion to be illegal, but we do not collect data on the reason for an IRPs decision.

We do not collect data on pupils who are prevented from attending a school outside of the formal exclusion process.