Schools: Crimes of Violence

Mr. Laws
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families how many assaults there were on school teachers in 2005-06 which led to exclusions, broken down by (a) category of assault and (b) local education authority; and if he will make a statement.

Jim Knight
The number of incidents of assaults towards staff in schools is not collected centrally. The Department does collect information on the reasons why pupils have been excluded, either for a fixed period or permanently. This includes a category for “physical assault against an adult” although this is not broken down by category of assault.

Local authority level tables showing the number of permanent and fixed period exclusions by reason have been placed in the library. For 2005-06 this information is only available for secondary schools due to underlying changes in the data collection. For 2006-07 this coverage will extend to also include primary and special schools.