In February 2014, following results of the Teacher Voice survey (2013) which showed that one in three secondary school teachers lacked confidence in their powers to discipline pupils, we updated our behaviour advice to make clear the range of sanctions that it is permissible for schools to deploy for poor behaviour. This update was aimed to reassure teachers of their powers to discipline pupils and increase teacher confidence to confront poor pupil behaviour.

The Teacher Voice survey funded by the Department for Education was repeated in May 2014, just three months after the behaviour advice was updated. The majority of teachers (74 per cent) said that the standard of pupil behaviour in their school is ‘good’ or ‘very good’. This is broadly similar to the findings for 2013 and an increase of 4 percentage points on the respective figure for 2008.

In addition, the Ofsted Annual Report published in December 2014 shows that 83 per cent of schools have behaviour that is good or better. We aim to repeat the same behaviour questions in future waves of the Teacher Voice survey in order to measure change in pupil behaviour over time.

An answer to this question can only be provided at disproportionate cost.

We do not record concerted indiscipline as category when making payments through the civil litigation process. Moreover, compensation payments to prisoners for lost or damaged property can be made through civil litigation, internal complaints, or as a result of recommendations made by the Prison and Probation Ombudsman and by the Parliamentary Ombudsman.

To determine the total amount of compensation payments made would require a trawl through thousands of records held at every public sector prison and in NOMS headquarters.

We welcome Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector’s report which highlights continuing improvement in schools and further education. The report shows that there are now over a million more children being taught in good and outstanding schools than in 2010. The Chief Inspector is right to highlight areas which require further improvement and these matters will form part of the regular discussion between ministers and Ofsted. As part of its role, the Commons Education Select Committee will be taking evidence from the Chief Inspector about the Annual Report at its hearing on 28 January 2015 and we will consider the evidence from that session as part of our ongoing discussions with the Chief Inspector. As a government we are committed to ensuring high standards in schools across the country.

I refer the hon Member to the answer I gave on 4 December 2014 to Question 213262 to the hon Member for Wrexham (Mr Ian Lucas).

NOMS policy is that prisoners are only permitted very restricted access to the Internet for resettlement purposes and in a closely controlled and managed environment.

If found accessing the Internet without the permission of staff, prisoners are dealt with robustly and can be referred to the police or charged with an offence against the Prison Rules.

NOMS does not centrally record the number of prisoners who have accessed the Internet without permission. To identify them would require the examination and collation of personal records from each prison and could only be done at disproportionate cost.

Both male and female prisoners are expected to engage in education and work, as directed, and those who do not can be dealt with under prisoner discipline procedures. Prisoners who intentionally fail to work properly or, being required to work, refuse to do so can be charged under the Prison Rules 1999 and Young Offender Institution Rules 2000. In addition to the range of punishments that can be incurred for offences against prison discipline, where prisoners attend work or education but fail to sufficiently engage, deductions from prisoners’ pay can be made for poor attendance to an activity place and/or for poor performance.

The revised Incentives and Earned Privileges (IEP) policy framework came into effect on 1 November 2013 and, under it, adult prisoners are expected to demonstrate a commitment towards their rehabilitation, engage in purposeful activity (for example, attend work and/or education), reduce their risk of reoffending, behave well and help others. Prisoners who do not engage sufficiently with these requirements can be placed on the lowest level of the scheme.

We are committed to delivering purposeful activity in prisons, so that people have the best chance of not reoffending. Under the Offenders’ Learning and Skills Service (OLASS), resistant learners are offered personal and social development activities. This can increase their confidence and provide the motivation required to progress to formal learning and work activities. Where possible, learning is embedded into other regime activities.

Prisoner Learning Representatives, Peer Mentors and Learning Champions offering help with reading and life skills and providing information, advice and guidance, individualised support and encourage other prisoners to engage in regime activities.

OLASS providers offer individualised programmes of support to prisoners who present with a learning difficulty or disability.

A monthly breakdown of key lock incidents, incidents at height, hostage incident and concerted indiscipline as requested can be provided but not in the time available. I will write to you as soon as this information is available.

The majority of schools are safe and disciplined environments, where teachers are respected and pupils learn in an orderly environment. Nevertheless, Ofsted indicated in its 2013 annual report that there are 700,000 pupils in schools where behaviour is just not good enough.

The Government has taken strong action to support schools in maintaining discipline and developing a culture of respect for teacher authority. In the Education Act 2011, we strengthened teachers’ powers to discipline pupils for poor behaviour. Teachers can now issue same-day detentions and search pupils for banned items. We have also provided clarity on the use of reasonable force. Earlier this year we outlined a range of tough but proportionate sanctions that teachers can use to punish poor behaviour and maintain discipline. From January 2014, Ofsted introduced ‘no-notice’ inspections for schools with behaviour issues.

All schools must, by law, have a behaviour policy and make this known to parents, usually by placing it on the school’s website. Our advice makes clear that it is vital that the behaviour policy is well understood by staff, parents and pupils, and that it is consistently applied.

Good schools recognise the importance of engaging parents and have developed their own approaches according to the particular circumstances of the school. In March 2014, we published a series of case studies on managing behaviour and bullying, which include examples of what good schools are doing to engage parents in a spirit of openness and shared responsibility. These case studies are published online at:

www.gov.uk/government/collections/managing-behaviour-and-bullying-in-schools-case-studies

The punishment of additional days arises from adjudication outcomes. Data on adjudications count the number of offences punished and the number of punishments given, rather than the number of prisoners charged with those offences.

The following table gives details of the total number of offences punished, the total number of punishments given, and the number of punishments for which additional days were given, each year from 2004 to 2013 (latest available).

These figures have been drawn from administrative IT systems which, as with any large scale recording system, are subject to possible errors with data entry and processing.

Good behaviour and discipline are key to effective teaching and learning. The recent OECD report identified that serious disciplinary problems in England are unusual and in most schools the learning environment is good. Just 21% of teachers in England agree or strongly agree that they have to wait quite a long time at the start of their class for students to quieten down. This is less than the median for all countries of 27% and below all but one of the high-performing countries. England is typically very close to the international average on other measures of classroom disciplinary environment, including disruptive noise and interruptions in the classroom.

This Government has never been complacent in trying to equip schools with the tools they need to manage discipline in the classroom. That is why we gave schools the powers to impose same-day detentions, extended their powers to search for items that could cause harm or offence, made clear that schools should not have a ‘no touch’ policy and clarified the use of reasonable force. The Government also introduced a system of independent review panels which, unlike the previous system, cannot undermine schools’ decisions on permanent exclusion. In September 2012 we introduced the New National Professional Qualification for Headship with more robust content on behaviour management. In addition, Ofsted have begun implementing no-notice follow-up school monitoring inspections where concerns were previously identified about standards of behaviour.

More recently, in February 2014, and following results from the Teacher Voice Survey (2013) which showed that one in three secondary teachers lacked confidence in their powers to discipline pupils, we:

issued updated behaviour advice to make clear that tough but proportionate sanctions, including litter picking in the playground, removing graffiti, writing lines or an essay, are all valid punishments;

produced a series of case studies showing how good schools manage behaviour, ranging from the use of inclusion art projects, having a specially modified curriculum, using Saturday detentions and increased visibility of senior staff around school throughout the day.

We remain determined to support schools in providing safe, calm and orderly classrooms where pupils can learn effectively.

Independent Adjudicators are District Judges or Deputy District Judges who attend establishments when necessary to hear more serious cases. Where a replacement Judge needs to sit in court to replace one attending a prison the cost of the replacement Judge is charged on a quarterly basis by HM Courts Service to the National Offender Management Service. The charge varies according to time involved.

The information in the table below shows the monthly charges paid for the use of independent adjudicators in all prisons in England and Wales including Young Offenders Institutions for the period January 2013 to March 2014. Details for the months April 2014 to present are not yet available.

The cost per visit can vary due to several factors, including distance travelled, overnight accommodation where necessary, and the number of establishments visited on a single journey. Charges are made on the basis of visits and not adjudications, so a single visit may include several adjudications taking place at the same establishment.

The cost of annual Adjudication charges in 2013/14 was 22% lower than the cost in 2009/10.

It is vital that teachers have the support and respect of parents to manage pupil behaviour so they can teach in an orderly environment. Good schools recognise the importance of engaging parents and have developed their own approaches according to the particular circumstances of the school.

In response to a question about what teachers viewed as the most common factors causing poor behaviour in schools, excluding special educational needs and other medical factors, 72% considered ‘lack of parental support or poor parenting skills’ as the most common factor causing poor behaviour, and ‘parental lack of respect for teachers and authority’ was the second most frequently selected factor.

We are aware of research, including that based on data from the National Child Development Study, that shows that parental involvement has a positive effect on children’s achievement even when the influence of background factors such as social class and family size have been taken into account.

The 2013 National Foundation for Educational Research (NfER) Teacher Voice Survey, commissioned by the Department for Education, found that 55% of teachers surveyed agreed that parents generally respected a teacher’s authority to discipline pupils.

In March 2014, we published a series of case studies on behaviour and bullying, which include examples of what good schools are doing to engage parents in a spirit of openness and shared responsibility. These case studies contain examples of the work good schools do with parents to encourage participation of hard-to-reach groups and are published online at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/managing-behaviour-and-bullying-in-schools-case-studies

The Government does not have any evidence of any correlation between bad behaviour in schools and the absence of a specified dress code for pupils and teachers.

The Department for Education has issued advice that strongly encourages schools to have a uniform, as it can play a valuable role in contributing to the ethos of a school and setting an appropriate tone. However, it is for the governing body of a school (or the academy trust in the case of academies and free schools) to decide whether there should be a uniform policy and other rules on appearance. This flows from the duties placed upon all governing bodies by statute to ensure that school policies promote good behaviour and discipline among the pupil body.

Dress codes for teachers are a matter for employers to determine, whether that is the governing body, academy trust or local authority. As part of the general terms and conditions of employment agreed with

employees we would expect schools to consider an appropriate dress code, relevant to the individual setting, taking into account the requirements of the post.

The Incident Reporting System is used by establishments to record events that undermine the safety of those within an establishment and/or subvert the authority or effectiveness of the establishment's regimes or facilities.

There is a range of incident types recorded on this system and the data needs to undergo validation and assurance before being published. To undertake this on each incident type that is reported takes time and so I will write to you when this information is available for the latest period.

29 per cent of secondary school teachers did not feel confident using disciplinary powers, compared to 17 per cent of primary school teachers. The Department for Education does not hold separate data for local authority schools and academies.

Ofsted’s annual report (2012/13) indicates that around 700,000 pupils are in schools where behaviour needs to improve.

This figure is based on Ofsted’s behaviour inspection judgement for 2013, which shows that nationally 8 per cent of schools in England are rated less than ‘good’, and the number of pupils on roll in schools taken from the rounded January 2013 School Census Data. Information in the form requested is not held by the Department.