School Census: Pupils’ Nationality

Lord Steel of Aikwood Excerpts

Wednesday 12th October 2016 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

My noble friend makes a good point. I should reassure him that the DfE has robust processes in place to ensure that the confidentiality of pupils’ details is maintained, and there are necessary checks and balances to ensure that there is no inadvertent misuse of these data. I go further to say that there is no requirement for schools to request or see documentary evidence such as a passport or birth certificate; it is purely focused on specific issues, with those safeguards.

[Lord Steel of Aikwood (LD)]

How do the Government propose to count the growing number of children who have dual nationality?

[Viscount Younger of Leckie]

I believe that I have answered that question to the extent that all pupils are taken account of and the schools of course have their own management information system to be able to monitor pupils from wherever they come—from within this country or abroad.