§ Mr. CoxTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Employment how many pupils were excluded from schools in each of the London boroughs during the last 12 months. [139773]
§ Jacqui SmithThe information requested is shown in the following table.
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Number of permanent exclusions by local education authority area—England 1998–99 Number of permanent exclusions1 England 10,438 London 1,782 Inner London 639 Camden 32 City of London 0 Hackney 36 Hammersmith and Fulham 48 Haringey 43 Islington 36 Kensington and Chelsea 29 Lambeth 40 Lewisham 65 Newham 54 Southwark 108 Tower Hamlets 32 Wandsworth 76 Westminster 40 Outer London 1,143 Barking and Dagenham 39 Barnet 42 Bexley 61 Brent 77 Bromley 87 Croydon 131 Ealing 74 Enfield 76 Greenwich 79 Harrow 42 Havering 41 Hillingdon 66 Hounslow 67 Kingston upon Thames 25 Merton 24 Redbridge 42 Richmond upon Thames 45 Sutton 39 Waltham Forest 86 1 Includes maintained primary, maintained secondary. maintained special and non-maintained special schools Further information on permanent exclusions will be published at the end of November 2000 in a Statistical Bulletin, a copy of which will be placed in the Library.
We are providing £174 million next year to help schools and LEAs tackle exclusion—a third more than in 1999–2000 and 10 times more than in 1996–97. This is helping to pay for more than 1,000 on-site Learning Support Units which take disruptive pupils out of the classroom quickly, improve their behaviour and reduce the need for exclusion. Where an exclusion is necessary, provision for excluded pupils is being greatly increased. There are now 1,000 more places and 250 more teachers in Pupil Referral Units (PRUs) than in 1997. The quality of PRUs is improving and by 2002 all local education authorities will be required to provide a full timetable for excluded pupils.