School Leaving: Qualifications

Mr. Gray
To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what proportion of pupils in (a) Wiltshire, (b) London and (c) England reached the end of compulsory schooling without a qualification in each of the last five years; and if he will make a statement.

Jim Knight
The information requested is shown in the following table. The data are taken from the last five years’ “GCSE and Equivalent Results in England” Statistical First Release, the latest of which can be found online at:

http://www.dcsf.gov.uk/rsgateway/DB/SFR/s000815/index.shtml.

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|                                                                                                                                                                                                                            |20041|2005|2006|2007|20084|
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|Wiltshire2                                                                                                                                                                                                                  |3.0  |2.6 |2.6 |2.0 |1.3  |
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|London2                                                                                                                                                                                                                     |4.2  |2.7 |2.5 |2.0 |1.9  |
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|England3                                                                                                                                                                                                                    |4.2  |2.6 |2.2 |1.1 |1.4  |
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|1 2004 figures include pupils aged 15 at the start of the academic year.2 Figures for Wiltshire and London include pupils in local authority maintained schools only.3 Figures for England include all schools.4 Provisional|     |    |    |    |     |
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