§ Mr. BurnsTo ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills (1) whether he plans to issue clarification to local education authorities on the guidance he has issued on the photographing of children at school; and if he will make a statement; [150531]
(2) when the hon. Member for Chelmsford will receive an answer to his question reference 150531 which received a holding answer on 26 January 2004. [157919]
§ Margaret Hodge[holding answers 26 January 2004 and 2 March 2004]: My Department has published information on its website in response to inquiries from schools about using video and photographic images of pupils in school publications, or on the internet. In brief, that advises that schools should obtain parental permission to publish images of pupils, they should not identify individual pupils, and that photographs of pupils should be kept secure.
We were told last year that some local authorities and schools had misinterpreted that advice: either applying it to the use of cameras and videos by parents when 1107W filming or photographing school events, or using it to form the basis of policies relating to the publication of photographs in local newspapers. As a result we revised the advice to make it clear that it does not apply to those areas and that schools and local education authorities are free to set their own policies about those issues in light of local circumstances and sensitivities.
The Newspaper Society and the Society of Editors recently raised concerns about some schools unwillingness to allow the publication of photographs of pupils in the local press. Representatives of both societies met with officials of my Department last week to discuss the issues and officials agreed to consider amplifying the information on the Department's website about that.