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Written question asked by Stephen Hammond (Conservative) on Monday, 9 January 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Wednesday, 11 January 2006. It was answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern (Labour) on Monday, 16 January 2006 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

Truancy

Question
To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills how many children were (a) stopped and (b) cautioned for truancy in (i) Wimbledon and (ii) the London borough of Merton in each year since 1997.
Answer

Since December 2002, the Department has co-ordinated national truancy sweeps in England. These usually take place during the autumn and spring terms. Data are collected from each local authority (LA) which participates in the national sweeps and relates to the whole LA and not to individual areas.Under Section 16 of the Crime and Disorder Act 1998 police officers have the power to return truants to their school or to a local designated place. There is no power to arrest, caution or detain children because they are out of school without a good reason. Children who truant from school are not committing a crime; their parents are legally responsible for their non-attendance. However, it is important that follow up arrangements are made for children who are out of school with no good reason.

Data for the London borough of Merton
Truancysweeps Total number of truancy sweeps Total stopped Total stopped with no valid reason for being out of school Total stopped over the year with no valid reason for being out of school
Autumn 2002 Not known 63 11 11
Spring 2003 2 16 7 40
Autumn 2003 5 44 33 —
Spring 2004 4 48 22 —
Autumn 2004 5 23 8 30
Spring 2005 3 15 11 11
Autumn 2005 — — — —
(55) Data still being collected

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
441 c1031-2W; 41706
Session
2005-06
Subjects
Police Powers Truancy Merton
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.publications.parliament.uk