§ Mr. BradyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills when he will introduce the new voluntary recognition system for language skills; which body will operate the system, including the setting and monitoring of standards; and what he expects the cost to be in each of the next five years. [89330]
§ Mr. MilibandThe voluntary recognition system will be formally introduced in 2005. Prior to that, the system will be trialled. The Department is working with a number of key partners, including the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), the Centre for Information on Language Teaching and Research (CILT) and the Nuffield Languages Programme to
572WInformation on permanent exclusions is derived from Annual Schools' Census returns made by schools to the Department in January each year. This includes characteristics of the excluded pupil such as the pupil's age, gender and ethnicity. However, the reason for exclusion is not collected.
However, on 20 January 2003 the Education (Pupil Exclusions and Appeals) (Maintained Schools) (England) Regulations 2002 will come into force, which require schools to report all fixed term exclusions to their local education authority.
We are planning to collect information from local education authorities on both fixed term and permanent exclusions on a termly basis from this summer. This will capture the reason for the exclusion.