§ Lord Clement-Jonesasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether in England, in the annual schools' census conducted by virtue of Section 92 of the Education Act 1944, they will follow the example of the Scottish Office in its 1998 school census and include a question on the incidence of autism; and, if not, why not. [HL 1972]
§ The Minister of State, Department for Education and Employment (Baroness Blackstone)Provisions now consolidated in the Education Act 1996 require schools to submit information on numbers of pupils with special educational needs. In accordance with a recommendation of the Warnock Committee, there is no requirement for them to record the nature of such pupils' disability or learning difficulty and we have no current intention to require them to do so.