§ Mr. HobanTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many half days have been lost owing to unauthorised absence of pupils in each year since 1997(a) in absolute terms and (b) as a proportion of the total number of half days. [141895]
§ Mr. Ivan LewisThe data for unauthorised absence, as requested, is shown in the following table.
Yearly unauthorised absence between 1997/98–2002/03 Total possible sessions (a) Half days missed due to unauthorized absence (b) Percentage of half days missed 1997/98 2,074,028,975 15,355,180 0.74 1998/99 2,140,513,917 15,644,482 0.73 1999/2000 2,125,665,642 15,008,057 0.71 2000/01 2,124,473,604 15,423,004 0.73 2001/02 2,128,700,388 15,296,933 0.72 2002/031 2,105,577,893 14,846,088 0.71 1 Provisional