To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what guidance notes have been sent by his Department to school exclusion appeals panels since 1998. [127891]

Between 1998 and 2001 a number of changes were made to schools exclusion and LEA appeal panel arrangements. In 2003, Chapter 6 and Annex D of Circular 10/99 were superseded by guidance called Improving Behaviour and Attendance: Guidance on Exclusion from Schools and Pupil Referral Units ref DfES/0087/2003 and further reflected changes made to exclusion policy. The changes included:

the requirement that panels balance the interests of the permanently excluded child with that of others in the school;

preventing panels from reinstating a pupil solely on the basis of minor technicalities in prior procedure;

changes to the composition of appeal panel members to include head teacher(s), school governor(s) and a lay member which brought with a wealth of school based experience;

enabling panels to decide because of exceptional circumstances or other reasons it is not practical to require reinstatement when it would otherwise have been appropriate to have given such a direction.

In addition, LEA Independent Appeal Panels were issued with an Exclusion Appeal Panels' training pack in 2001 (this was updated in 2003). This has equipped all LEAs with the resource to train their panel members on the changes.