Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many cases of serious misconduct by headteachers have been reported to her Department by the National College for Teaching and Leadership in each of the last three years; and how many of those cases included inappropriate exclusions.

In the last three years there have been 57 cases of serious misconduct concluded at a hearing involving a head teacher. The National College for Teaching and Leadership (NCTL) does not record inappropriate exclusions as a category of misconduct. We would normally expect this type of misconduct to be dealt with at a local level by employers.

The NCTL considers referrals concerning serious misconduct by teachers. These are recorded at the initial stage according to the type of misconduct being alleged. Inappropriate exclusion is not a type of serious misconduct that is recorded. We do not record the role held by a teacher until an investigation concludes that there is evidence of serious professional misconduct.