Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, if his Department will make an assessment of the potential relationship between school exclusions and youth violence.

The Government’s Serious Violence Strategy, published April 2018, summarises the risk and protective factors for violence identified by research.

The Strategy suggests that school exclusion is a marker for increased risk both in terms of victimisation and perpetration. Whilst this does not mean there is a causal link, the Government recognises there are complex and multiple vulnerabilities that can impact on children’s outcomes and is accordingly taking action to address this.

The Home Office and Department for Education continue to work together to deliver the commitment in the strategy to consider support for pupils at risk of exclusion as well as for those who have been excluded, to reduce the risk of them being drawn into crime and associated pathways.