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Pupils: Personal Records

Answer

The school an individual child attends will hold information about that child which will be used by the school to help ensure the child receives the best possible education. Every term the school is required, by law, to send some of this data to the Department for Education (DfE) via the school census.

The majority of school census data is stored securely within the National Pupil Database to provide a clear picture of how the school system is working, at local and national level. It helps us to make sure we are allocating funds where they are needed and that no groups of children are missing out on the education they deserve. We take privacy extremely seriously and access to sensitive data held within the National Pupil database is strictly controlled.

As has always been the case, where the police or Home Office have clear evidence that a child may be at risk or there is evidence of criminal activity, including illegal immigration, limited data including a pupil’s address and school details may be requested from the National Pupil Database. It is right that we share this data if it helps to keep a child safe from harm or to prevent a crime. This does not, however, include the nationality, country of birth and proficiency in English information recently introduced into school census which is collected solely for DfE analysts to use for research.

The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between the DfE and the Home Office sets out how this process works and the data which is shared. A copy of the MoU between the Home Office and the DfE, which covers the sharing of limited information between those parties, is available in the house library.

Secondary information

Type

Written question

Reference

HL4514

Session

2016-17

Related items

Deposited Paper DEP2017-0027
Monday, 24 October 2016
Deposited papers
House of Lords
House of Commons

Subjects

Disclosure of information Home Office Personal records Pupils

Link

View this Written question on www.parliament.uk