§ Mr. ThurnhamTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science what advice his Department issues to local education authorities about the number of hours of tuition to be provided for children on permanent or indefinite exclusion from school; and what assessment he has made of whether such children are receiving sufficient tuition to cover the whole of the national curriculum provisions.
§ Mr. FallonThe Department does not issue guidance about the number of hours of tuition to be provided for children excluded from school. That is a matter for local education authorities to decide in the light of individual circumstances. It is the responsibility of the head teacher, the governing body and the local education authority to secure the provision of the full national curriculum to all pupils of compulsory school age registered at maintained schools, save to the extent that they may have been statutorily excepted from some part of it.