Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 6 December (HL3501), whether the Department for Education would normally expect to be made aware of any research concerning school attendance which involved the divulgence of names and addresses of school pupils by school attendance officers.

The department would not expect to be made aware of independent research with schools. We would, however, expect any research with schools to be carried out in accordance with ethical principles around anonymity and disclosure, which can be found in frameworks such as the ‘Ethical Assurance Guidance for Social Research in government’ which is attached.