Oral Answers to Questions

James Frith Excerpts

Monday 29th April 2019 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Jones (Croydon Central) (Lab)]

2. What progress has been made on the Timpson review of school exclusions.

[James Frith (Bury North) (Lab)]

5. What progress has been made on the Timpson review of school exclusions.

[Ellie Reeves (Lewisham West and Penge) (Lab)]

12. What progress has been made on the Timpson review of school exclusions.

--- Later in debate ---

[Damian Hinds]

I commend the hon. Lady for the work that she and her colleagues do on the all-party parliamentary group on knife crime, which is a terrible scourge for us all to grapple with. I am not in a position to give her a date for publication of the Timpson review. It will be soon, but we have to be careful not to draw a simple causal link between exclusions and knife crime.

[James Frith]

According to the most recent figures collected by the Education Policy Institute, in one year nearly 55,000 children have disappeared from school rolls without explanation. The Secretary of State cannot tell us why, nor can he for those excluded officially, because his Department collects no further information on them. While we wait for Timpson to report, will the Secretary of State commit to my call—one that is supported by Ofsted, the National Education Union and many people across education—to scrap the “other” category as a reason for exclusion, which now represents 20% of exclusions in our schools on his watch?

[Damian Hinds]

To continue the theme of simple links that should not be drawn, it would be wrong to associate that figure of 55,000 with any one category. There are many reasons why children may be taken out of school—for example, emigration. We are concerned, of course, about exclusions. That is why I invited Edward Timpson to carry out this review. It would be wrong of me to pre-empt what he has to say, but we will report back soon.