Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of ethnic monitoring of pupils in the compilation of data in relation to (1) school exclusions, and (2) the provision of alternatives to classroom schooling.

The Government publishes school exclusions data by pupil characteristic in the ‘Permanent exclusions and suspensions in England’ publication. The data is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/permanent-and-fixed-period-exclusions-in-england. Since November 2022, this data has been published two terms in arrears rather than as an annual release. This fulfils the Department’s commitment to the 2021 report ‘Strengthening Home Education’, where the Education Select Committee suggested that only having an annual statistical release on exclusions may prevent the Department from identifying illegal exclusion practices.

The Department also publishes the ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication for placements in non-school based alternative provision arranged by local authorities (Alternative Provision census), and placements in non-school based alternative provision arranged by schools (from 2023 only, School census). These tables are available in the attached files.

The Department also publishes the ‘Schools, pupils and their characteristics’ publication, which is available at: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/school-pupils-and-their-characteristics. The 2 attached tables provide information on:

• Placements in non-school based alternative provision arranged by local authorities (Alternative Provision Census).
• Placements in non-school based alternative provision arranged by schools (from 2023 only, School Census).