Truancy: West Sussex

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what the unauthorised absence rate was for pupils in (a) Mid Sussex constituency and (b) West Sussex in each year since 1997. (314792)

[holding answer 2 February 2010]: The available information is shown in the table.

To provide information for further years would incur disproportionate cost.

*Primary, secondary and special schools*^{1, 2, 3} *percentage of half days missed due to unauthorised absence 1996/97 to 2007/08*⁴
	Percentage of half days missed due to unauthorised absence⁵
	Mid Sussex constituency	West Sussex
1996/97	0.18	0.35
1999/2000	0.30	0.44
2003/04	0.33	0.44

2007/08	0.50	0.64
¹ Includes middle schools as deemed. ² Includes maintained secondary schools, city technology colleges and academies (including all-through academies). ³ Includes maintained and non maintained special schools. Excludes general hospital schools. ⁴ Figures prior to 2007/08 have been sourced from the Absence in Schools Survey. Other figures are derived from the School Census. ⁵ The number of sessions missed due to unauthorised absence expressed as a percentage of the total number of possible sessions. Source: Absence in Schools Survey and School Census (see foot note 4)

Volume 506: debated on Tuesday 23 February 2010