Truancy

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children were (a) stopped and (b) cautioned for truancy in (i) Taunton Deane, (ii) Somerset and (iii) England in each year since 1997. (133345)

Figures from the twice-yearly nationally co-ordinated truancy sweeps that the Department ran until autumn 2006 show:

*Number of pupils stopped*
	Somerset	England
Autumn 2002	95	20,554
Spring 2003	109	14,375
Autumn 2003	69	17,718
Spring 2004	39	11,365
Autumn 2004	126	14,958
Spring 2005	70	12,808
Autumn 2005	80	12,056
Spring 2006	26	10,196
Autumn 2006	94	11,713

*Number of pupils stopped without good reason for being out of school*
	Somerset	England
Autumn 2002	21	7,341
Spring 2003	45	5,812
Autumn 2003	0	7,189
Spring 2004	15	5,088
Autumn 2004	54	5,915
Spring 2005	10	5,639
Autumn 2005	42	4,965
Spring 2006	20	4,589
Autumn 2006	72	4,840

Local authorities run sweeps at other times in response to local intelligence but the Department does not collect statistics from these sweeps. The Department does not collect statistics for either Wales or district councils.

Volume 459: debated on Thursday 26 April 2007