Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will set up an independent inquiry into school exclusions, pupil referral units and their links to serious violence.

The issues surrounding serious violence, anti-social behaviour and absence and exclusion from school are complex, which is why we are working with the education and care sectors, the Home Office and other Departments as part of a comprehensive, multi-agency response.

The externally led review of exclusions, led by Edward Timpson CBE, which is exploring how head teachers use exclusion in practice and difference in exclusion rates across England, will report shortly. Whilst exclusion is a marker for increased risk of being both a victim and perpetrator of crime, care must be taken not to draw a simple causal link between exclusions and knife crime as there is no clear evidence that this is the case. Therefore, whilst preventing knife crime requires a wider response than just exclusions, the report will help build the Department’s understanding of the use and impact of exclusion.

It is vital that young people who have been excluded from school are safe and receive high-quality education and support to get them back on track. The Department knows there are many remarkable Alternative Provision (AP) settings where committed staff work together to ensure high-quality outcomes for their pupils. The Government is determined to ensure this best practice informs the reform of AP, which is why independent research was commissioned last year to better understand how AP works, and what works well.