Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many children were informally excluded from schools in academic year 2016-17; and how many of those informal exclusions related to SEND children.

Any exclusion of a pupil, even for a short period of time, must be formally recorded.

The head teacher of a school can only exclude a pupil on disciplinary grounds. The decision to exclude a pupil must be lawful, reasonable and fair.

The Department does not hold the information on any children who have been prevented from attending school outside of this process.