Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what personal data of children who are excluded is routinely collected in regard to their home backgrounds; and in particular, whether those children live with both parents, and what other close relationships with adults they have.

Information on excluded pupils is collected from schools via the school census data collection. The department does not routinely collect information about a child’s living arrangements, nor does it collect information on a child’s relationship with their parents or other adults.

The department does collect the home address and certain other characteristic information that will provide some insight into the home background of individual children. This includes information concerning: whether the pupil would be eligible for free school meals or other funding streams (including early years pupil premium and disability access fund); whether the pupil is a service child; and whether the pupil has left care in England and Wales through either adoption, a special guardianship order, a residence order or a child arrangement order.

A robust approvals panel and other controls are in place to ensure that our data is safely guarded and used only in legal, secure and ethical ways.