Written question asked by Norman Baker (Liberal Democrat) on Tuesday, 15 December 2009, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 5 January 2010. It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Monday, 25 January 2010 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Pupils: Absenteeism

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

Answer

The available information is shown in the following table.To provide information for further years would incur disproportionate cost.

Primary, secondary and special schools¹, ², ³, percentage of half days missed due to unauthorised absence4, 1996/97 to 2007/085
	Lewes constituency	East Sussex
1996/976	0.28	0.56
1999/2000	0.60	0.73
2003/04	0.64	0.95
2007/08	1.16	1.17
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 The number of sessions missed due to unauthorised absence expressed as a percentage of the total number of possible sessions.
5 Figures prior to 2007/08 have been sourced from the Absence in Schools Survey. Other figures are derived from the School Census.
6 East Sussex local authority area following local government reorganisation in April 1997.
Source:
Absence in Schools Survey and School Census5.

Secondary information