School Suspensions/Expulsions for Use of Offensive Weapons 22-23 Academic Year
Case reference FOI2023/01590
Published 9 October 2023
Request
1. Can you state how many children within your authority were
(i) given a fixed period exclusion (suspension),
and (ii) permanently excluded from school (expelled) where a reason was recorded as being "Use or threat of use of an offensive weapon or prohibited item" in the 2022/23 academic year?
2. Please could you provide me with a one line summary of each incident referred to in Question 1 detailing
(i) what the weapon was,
(ii) if it was used or whether it was brandished,
(iii) who the victim was - pupil, teacher or member of the public.
Response
The information you have requested is due to be published by the Department of Education on its website in July 2024 as part of its official statistics for 2022/23.
Therefore we consider your request to be exempt under Section 22 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 on the grounds that the information is intended for future publication.
This exemption is subject to a Public Interest Test and accordingly I have weighed the reasons for and against the release of the information in the public interest as follows:
The public interest in disclosure:
Openness and transparency regarding the number of, and reasons for, fixed period exclusions or permanent exclusions from schools.
The public interest in non-disclosure:
Herefordshire Council is not refusing to disclose the information, but is following a defined course of action before the information is made public.
Schools and academies have a statutory duty to report all suspensions and exclusions as part of the termly school census return. A school census is conducted in:
Autumn term - October
Spring - January
Summer - May
Exclusions and expulsions are collected one term in arrears of the census collection. Due to the lag in reporting, exclusions and suspensions that occurred in the final term of 2022/23 (summer term) will not be collected until the autumn census (October 2023). Data submissions about exclusions and suspensions by schools and academies as part of the statutory school census are published by the Department of Education via the dataset 'Permanent Exclusions and Suspensions in England'. The last complete academic year of publication is currently 2021/22 and that can be viewed via the following link:
Permanent exclusions and suspensions in England: 2021 to 2022 - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
The council should be informed of all school exclusions, however, until receipt of data from the statutory school census the council is unable to confirm every incident has been reported.
Once the census has been completed, data will be submitted to the Department of Education who will then check this and publish as per the timescales set out above.
Taking the above into consideration, I find the balance in favour of not disclosing the information until it is made public. Please take this letter as a refusal notice under S17 of the Act.
However, in order to assist you with your request, the council can provide a response based upon the information submitted by schools so far. However, for the reasons set out above the following figures should be treated as provisional.
Please note that schools can now report up to three reasons for a suspension or exclusion and the Department of Education does not apply a ranking to these reasons. For this response, Reason 1 has been taken as the primary reason for the incident.
1. Can you state how many children within your authority were:
(i) given a fixed period exclusion (suspension), and
(ii) permanently excluded from school (expelled) where a reason was recorded as being "Use or threat of use of an offensive weapon or prohibited item" in the 2022/23 academic year?
0
2. Please could you provide me with a one line summary of each incident referred to in Question 1 detailing
(i) what the weapon was,
(ii) if it was used or whether it was brandished, (iii) who the victim was - pupil, teacher or member of the public.
N / A.
However, please note that guidance from the Department of Education "Suspensions & Permanent Exclusion from maintained schools, academies and pupil referral units in England including pupil movement" (September 2023) Permanent exclusions and suspensions from schools: 2022 to 2023 - National statistics announcement - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) does not specify that a local authority has to be informed of the details that you have requested in Question 2, even though, in this case, it is not applicable.
Documents
This is Herefordshire Council's response to a freedom of information (FOI) or environmental information regulations (EIR) request.
You can browse our other responses or make a new FOI request.