To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what proportion of children in West Lancashire with a special educational need were referred to the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal in each of the last two years. (112225)

I have been asked to reply.

The table gives the number of appeals against Lancashire local authority in the last two school years, and the number of children with special educational needs in the local authority’s primary and secondary schools in the January of the relevant period.

Appeals concern children residing in the local authority, rather than pupils at the local authority’s schools. It would therefore be misleading to express one figure as a proportion of the other.

Appeals are made against local education authority decisions and we do not collate appeals data at a more local level.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills who is responsible for monitoring the performance and practices of the Special Educational Needs and Disability Tribunal; and if he will place in the Library copies of monitoring reports. (132380)

I have been asked to reply.

SENDIST has been part of the Tribunals Service, an Executive Agency of the DCA, since 1 April 2006. The chief executive of the Tribunals Service is, therefore, now responsible for the administration of the tribunal including its performance. SENDIST’s president is an independently appointed judicial office holder and is responsible for the judicial aspects of the tribunal’s work, including judicial decision making and training of the judiciary. Copies of SENDIST’s most recent annual report for 2005-06 have been placed in the Library.

The Tribunals Service will be publishing its first annual report (covering 2006/07) shortly.