§ Ms BuckTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many pupils in London lacked fluency in English on their entry to(a) primary and (b) secondary schooling in the last year for which figures are available, broken down by (i) constituency and (ii) local education authority. [143579]
§ Mr. Stephen TwiggThe available information collected centrally relates to pupils whose first language is known or believed to be other than English. This information has been placed in the House of Commons library.
"First Language" is the language to which the child was initially exposed during early development. If the child was exposed to more than one language and these include English, then English has been taken to be their first language. If a child acquires English subsequent to early development, then English has not been recorded as their first language no matter how proficient in it they have become.
Information on first language is not necessarily a robust indicator of fluency.