§ Mr. LoveTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many secondary age pupils are without a school place in each year group in each London borough; what assistance his Department provides to find places for these children; and if he will make a statement. [111984]
§ Ms Estelle MorrisThis information is not collected centrally by my Department. Section 14 of the Education Act 1996 places a duty on individual LEAs to ensure that there are sufficient school places for all children of compulsory school age in their area. Each LEA must produce annually a School Organisation Plan, which is a 5 year rolling plan, setting out how they propose to remedy any excess or insufficiency of school places and to make provision for children with special educational needs. Plans are approved at local level by the School Organisation Committee for the area or, if they cannot agree, by an independent Adjudicator. All but two London boroughs have had the Plans they published in 1999 approved by their local School Organisation Committee.