Examinations (Hansard, 16 November 1992)

§ Mr. Byers
To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will state the name of the private company responsible for compiling the national table of school examination results by local authority area.

§ Mr. Forth
Two organisations were involved in the compilation of the database and the tables. They are Bath university, which merged the examination entries and results supplied by the examinations boards and groups, and PMS Communications Ltd., which arranged for the checking of the data by schools and which prepared the national and local tables for publication.

§ Mr. Byers
To ask the Secretary of State for Education if he will state the number of independent schools operating in the secondary sector and the number that have volunteered their examination results to be reported as part of the national reporting of examinations scheme.

§ Mr. Forth
In January 1992, information available to the Department indicated that there were 1,025 independent schools which had pupils aged 15 and/or 17 years. All these schools were invited to take part in the publication of comparative tables of examination results and 259 did so.

§ Mr. Byers
To ask the Secretary of State for Education if the Central Statistical Office Survey Control Unit has approved the method by which the examination results from schools have been collected and the manner in which they will be published.

§ Mr. Forth
No. The collection and publication are administrative matters concerning identifiable schools and are not therefore covered by the arrangements under which the survey control unit approves statistical inquiries.