To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what guidance his Department has given to schools on contingency planning for firearms incidents on school premises. (178664)

We have provided—at:

http://www.teachernet.gov.uk/emergencies/

—guidance to schools which encourages and helps them develop emergency planning and response measures against floods and fire; it also provides links to other Government sources of advice on, for example, anti-terrorism. Schools can build on such measures for dealing with large-scale evacuation, on which we contributed to Cabinet Office guidelines, and with other contingencies. We have also produced, with the Home Office, “School Security: Dealing with Troublemakers and a Legal Toolkit”—at:

http://www.teachernet..gov.uk/wholeschool/healthandsafety/schoolsecurity/abusivebehaviour/

—which set out the law and good practice in such a way as to help schools cope with intruders, though they do not focus on dealing with armed intruders, nor pupils bringing in firearms.

We are working towards further guidance for schools on emergency planning and response, and will consider if and how this might cover the very rare incidents of firearms in schools.