Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many secondary school children have been off-rolled by their school in (a) the London Borough of Southwark, (b) London and (c) England in each of the last seven years.

The Department does not hold information centrally on the number of pupils taken off roll. Local authorities have a duty to make arrangements to establish the identities of children of compulsory school age in their area who are not registered pupils at a school and are not receiving suitable education otherwise.

The law is clear that a pupil’s name can only be deleted from the admission register on the grounds prescribed in regulation 8 of the Education (Pupil Registration) (England) Regulations 2006 as amended.

If a school removes a child from their roll when not at the point of a standard transition, it must inform the local authority and set out the grounds for their action. When removing a pupil’s name, the notification to the local authority must include: (a) the full name of the pupil, (b) the full name and address of any parent with whom the pupil normally resides, (c) at least one telephone number of the parent, and (d) the pupil’s future address and destination school, if applicable.