§ Mr. BradyTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills for what percentage of pupils their ethnicity has been(a) declared by parents or pupils and (b) determined by the pupil's school. [88888]
§ Mr. Stephen TwiggThe figures requested are not yet available.
New guidance was issued last year regarding the procedures schools should follow for the collection and recording of pupils' ethnic group. Schools should in the first instance seek information via parents, and any response (including a refusal to provide information) must be respected. However if there is no response at all to the school's inquiries it has the option of ascribing an ethnic group to the pupil based on its own best judgment. In this event various steps have to be taken in order to comply with data protection rules, and the fact that ascription has taken place must be shown alongside the ethnic group itself—both in the school's own records, and in any information passed on to the LEA or to the Department in the Pupil Level Annual Schools Census (PLASC). This year's PLASC returns from schools will reflect the ethnic group information which they have collected under the new guidance, including details of whether that was provided by parents or pupils or ascribed by the school. However these returns will not be received and processed until about April.