HL Deb 31 January 2005 vol 669 c15WA
Lord Hanningfield

asked Her Majesty's Government:

What proportion of pupils truanting from schools in England and Wales they estimate to be involved in some form of criminal activity. [HL862]

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department for Education and Skills (Lord Filkin)

The Department for Education and Skills does not have information on the proportion of truanting pupils who are involved in some form of criminal activity. The 2004 MORI Youth Survey for the Youth Justice Board for England and Wales found that of the young people in mainstream education who admitted committing an offence, 45 per cent of them said that they had played truant from school.

However, while there is a link between truancy and crime, not all truants are drawn into crime and there is no conclusive evidence about which comes first, truancy or offending.