Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to press release Prime Minister launches world-leading project on impact of ethnicity on everyday life, published on 10 October 2017, what the timetable is for his Department's external review of exclusions; and if he will list the groups disproportionately likely to be excluded on whose experiences that review will focus.

The Department will publish full details of the review, including timetables and how views can be submitted, in due course.

The externally led review of exclusions practice will consider how schools use exclusion overall and how this impacts on pupils, particularly why some groups such as those eligible for free school meals, those with special educational needs and disabilities, looked after children, children in need and pupils from certain ethnic groups are more likely to be excluded from school.

The Department publishes exclusion rates by characteristic annually. The most recent release can be accessed here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england-2015-to-2016.