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23 Oct 2006 : Column 1582W—continued

23 Oct 2006 : Column 1583W

Full-time equivalent regular teachers (excluding occasionals) and teaching assistants in local authority maintained schools in the West Midlands and Coventry, January 2006
	Teachers	Teaching assistants
West Midlands	49,400	17,430
Coventry	2,980	770
Note: Figures are rounded to the nearest 10. Source: Survey of teachers in service and teacher vacancies, (618g) and Annual School Survey.

Thumb Prints

Annette Brooke: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what guidance he has issued to school governors on whether they should consult parents before implementing a policy of taking thumb prints for library issues. [94875]

Jim Knight: The Department has not issued guidance to school governors on whether they should consult parents before implementing a policy of taking thumb prints for library issues. It is for each school to establish that it is acting lawfully in processing pupils’
23 Oct 2006 : Column 1584W
personal data and, on a case-by-case basis, is acting in compliance with the Human Rights Act 1998 and the Data Protection Act 1998, and the common law of confidentiality. The British Educational Communications and Technology Agency (BECTA) published guidance for schools in 2004 on their obligations and responsibilities under the Data Protection Act and other related legislation.

Unauthorised Absence

Chris Huhne: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills what levels of truancy were in (a) primary and (b) secondary schools in each year since 1997, broken down by local education authority; and if he will make a statement. [93549]

Jim Knight: The Department does not hold data on pupils recorded as truant. However, the figures for the proportion of half days missed due to unauthorised absence (of which truancy forms a part) in maintained mainstream primary schools and maintained mainstream secondary schools in each year since 1997, broken down by local authority are given in the following tables.

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23 Oct 2006 : Column 1587W

23 Oct 2006 : Column 1588W

Percentage of half days missed in maintained mainstream primary schools( 1) due to unauthorised absence( 2)
Local authority	1997-98	1998-99	1999-2000	2000-01	2001-02	2002-03	2003-04	2004-05	2005-06( 3)
Barking and Dagenham	1.2	1.4	1.4	1.4	1.52	1.37	1.34	1.27	1.22
Barnet	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.64	0.56	0.65	0.74	0.54
Barnsley	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.77	0.75	0.53	0.63	0.78
Bath and North East Somerset	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.33	0.32	0.32	0.28	0.34
Bedfordshire	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.21	0.21	0.17	0.22	0.25
Bexley	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.36	0.35	0.33	0.44	0.54
Birmingham	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.7	0.67	0.65	0.64	0.64	0.74
Blackburn with Darwen	0.7	0.7	0.5	0.5	0.46	0.45	0.50	0.40	0.46
Blackpool	0.8	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.86	0.68	0.71	0.73	0.61
Bolton	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.3	0.37	0.33	0.33	0.37	0.51
Bournemouth	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.3	0.24	0.20	0.21	0.27	0.25
Bracknell Forest	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.22	0.15	0.16	0.17	0.23
Bradford	1.1	1.1	0.9	0.9	0.76	0.69	0.70	0.82	0.95
Brent	0.8	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.49	0.41	0.55	0.54	0.59
Brighton and Hove	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.54	0.55	0.51	0.59	0.48
Bristol, City of	1.0	1.0	0.9	1.0	0.92	0.93	0.89	0.90	0.91
Bromley	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.40	0.43	0.60	0.53	0.68
Buckinghamshire	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.25	0.27	0.24	0.28	0.27
Bury	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.42	0.28	0.25	0.21	0.22
Calderdale	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.3	0.25	0.31	0.30	0.38	0.30
Cambridgeshire	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.33	0.34	0.39	0.39	0.46
Camden	1.1	1.3	1.2	1.3	1.10	0.77	0.56	0.57	0.60
Cheshire	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.34	0.38	0.39	0.40	0.39
Cornwall	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.3	0.36	0.30	0.32	0.39	0.39
Coventry	0.4	0.5	0.4	0.3	0.29	0.22	0.31	0.26	0.28
Croydon	0.6	0.7	0.5	0.7	0.55	0.69	0.73	0.63	0.67
Cumbria	0.2	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.20	0.21	0.17	0.16	0.15
Darlington	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.29	0.18	0.33	0.33	0.39
Derby City	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.76	0.61	0.60	0.67	0.75
Derbyshire	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.43	0.41	0.36	0.38	0.36
Devon	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.26	0.25	0.26	0.24	0.24
Doncaster	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.50	0.40	0.31	0.32	0.43
Dorset	0.4	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.31	0.25	0.25	0.24	0.29
Dudley	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.32	0.37	0.28	0.34	0.39
Durham	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.14	0.10	0.12	0.15	0.15
Ealing	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.3	0.25	0.22	0.27	0.26	0.33
East Riding of Yorkshire	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.19	0.19	0.13	0.12	0.12
East Sussex	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.5	0.37	0.41	0.53	0.77	0.71
Enfield	0.9	1.0	1.1	1.2	1.11	1.11	0.81	0.75	0.71
Essex	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.4	0.35	0.37	0.37	0.33	0.38
Gateshead	0.5	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.35	0.26	0.27	0.23	0.22
Gloucestershire	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.24	0.24	0.23	0.26	0.24
Greenwich	1.7	1.6	1.4	1.3	1.38	1.45	1.24	1.16	1.33
Hackney	1.3	1.5	1.5	1.6	1.36	1.36	1.16	1.04	1.13
Halton	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.57	0.46	0.44	0.47	0.53
Hammersmith and Fulham	1.3	1.4	1.2	0.9	0.61	0.76	0.70	0.62	0.80
Hampshire	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.36	0.33	0.30	0.29	0.29
Haringey	1.4	1.4	2.0	1.7	1.62	1.39	1.13	1.21	1.09
Harrow	0.5	0.4	0.5	0.4	0.32	0.21	0.17	0.14	0.17
Hartlepool	0.5	0.7	0.8	0.8	0.76	0.80	0.60	0.51	0.51
Havering	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.21	0.24	0.22	0.27	0.32
Herefordshire	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.18	0.19	0.20	0.22	0.25
Hertfordshire	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.37	0.34	0.32	0.33	0.35
Hillingdon	0.8	1.0	0.9	0.8	0.71	0.67	0.58	0.55	0.59
Hounslow	0.9	0.8	0.9	1.1	1.03	1.19	1.16	1.08	1.10
Isle of Wight	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.20	0.12	0.10	0.12	0.17
Isles of Scilly	0.1	0.0	0.2	—	—	0.70	0.42	0.87	0.21
Islington	1.1	1.2	1.2	1.1	1.20	1.26	0.96	0.81	0.72
Kensington and Chelsea	1.4	1.3	0.9	1.1	0.89	0.59	0.40	0.35	0.46
Kent	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.37	0.37	0.36	0.43	0.47
Kingston upon Hull, City of	0.8	0.9	0.8	0.8	0.68	0.65	0.55	0.57	0.63
Kingston upon Thames	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.25	0.22	0.23	0.29	0.24
Kirklees	0.8	0.7	0.6	0.6	0.48	0.41	0.40	0.35	0.35
Knowsley	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.8	0.69	0.64	0.75	0.66	0.78
Lambeth	1.3	1.2	1.1	1.2	1.07	1.07	0.97	1.01	0.98
Lancashire	0.3	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.34	0.31	0.32	0.34	0.35
Leeds	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.6	0.47	0.43	0.39	0.39	0.44
Leicester City	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.7	0.64	0.71	0.71	0.70	0.74
Leicestershire	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.17	0.17	0.18	0.20	0.21
Lewisham	1.3	1.3	1.5	1.7	1.35	1.06	0.97	1.09	1.09
Lincolnshire	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.33	0.28	0.29	0.26	0.24
Liverpool	0.8	0.8	0.6	0.6	0.53	0.52	0.48	0.45	0.48
London, City of	1.9	1.6	1.9	0.9	0.32	0.00	0.29	0.03	0.03
Luton	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.58	0.53	0.50	0.55	0.67
Manchester	1.2	1.0	0.9	1.0	0.88	0.83	0.85	0.93	1.05
Medway	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.36	0.30	0.31	0.37	0.35
Merton	0.8	0.8	0.6	0.5	0.38	0.35	0.33	0.39	0.27
Middlesbrough	0.5	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.35	0.37	0.42	0.49	0.49
Milton Keynes	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.3	0.35	0.29	0.22	0.24	0.25
Newcastle upon Tyne	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.51	0.49	0.38	0.41	0.47
Newham	2.0	1.7	1.7	1.7	1.53	1.04	0.71	0.76	0.91
Norfolk	0.4	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.46	0.45	0.41	0.42	0.41
North East Lincolnshire	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.19	0.23	0.23	0.24	0.22
North Lincolnshire	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.28	0.22	0.22	0.31	0.33
North Somerset	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.23	0.31	0.26	0.28	0.27
North Tyneside	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.11	0.12	0.17	0.18	0.20
North Yorkshire	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.17	0.16	0.17	0.18	0.22
Northamptonshire	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.44	0.39	0.38	0.42	0.44
Northumberland	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.21	0.19	0.19	0.19	0.26
Nottingham City	1.2	1.1	1.0	0.8	0.75	0.70	0.62	0.68	0.68
Nottinghamshire	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.42	0.39	0.35	0.36	0.34
Oldham	0.6	0.7	0.5	0.5	0.44	0.46	0.41	0.39	0.40
Oxfordshire	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.32	0.29	0.26	0.30	0.28
Peterborough City	0.5	0.5	0.7	0.6	0.50	0.51	0.49	0.47	0.51
Plymouth	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.29	0.26	0.26	0.25	0.29
Poole	0.6	0.6	0.5	0.5	0.50	0.47	0.46	0.42	0.49
Portsmouth	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.74	0.82	0.73	0.75	0.69
Reading	1.0	1.0	0.9	0.8	0.56	0.43	0.46	0.51	0.53
Redbridge	0.8	0.8	0.8	0.9	0.76	0.77	0.77	0.80	0.93
Redcar and Cleveland	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.22	0.25	0.25	0.30	0.32
Richmond upon Thames	0.1	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.27	0.32	0.35	0.44	0.53
Rochdale	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.5	0.49	0.57	0.70	0.75	0.70
Rotherham	0.6	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.55	0.46	0.40	0.45	0.66
Rutland	0.0	0.0	0.1	0.1	0.19	0.15	0.07	0.05	0.05
Salford	1.1	0.8	0.6	0.6	0.51	0.43	0.59	0.66	0.71
Sandwell	0.4	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.44	0.47	0.48	0.51	0.64
Sefton	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.23	0.22	0.20	0.28	0.40
Sheffield	1.1	1.0	1.0	0.9	0.77	0.66	0.64	0.69	0.71
Shropshire	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.1	0.13	0.13	0.13	0.14	0.17
Slough	0.6	0.8	0.9	0.8	0.70	0.75	0.79	0.87	1.11
Solihull	0.1	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.24	0.31	0.36	0.43	0.46
Somerset	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.28	0.27	0.26	0.32	0.47
South Gloucestershire	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.29	0.27	0.21	0.24	0.23
South Tyneside	0.1	0.1	0.1	0.2	0.11	0.15	0.20	0.19	0.22
Southampton	0.9	1.0	0.8	0.9	0.77	0.60	0.66	0.75	0.74
Southend-on-Sea	0.7	0.5	0.7	0.6	0.67	0.60	0.40	0.43	0.37
Southwark	1.7	1.6	1.6	1.7	1.78	1.74	1.61	1.34	1.25
St. Helens	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.39	0.35	0.33	0.39	0.46
Staffordshire	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.24	0.22	0.19	0.19	0.22
Stockport	0.4	0.4	0.5	0.4	0.39	0.31	0.30	0.27	0.29
Stockton on Tees	0.1	0.2	0.1	0.2	0.14	0.21	0.22	0.29	0.35
Stoke on Trent	0.5	0.6	0.5	0.6	0.69	0.74	0.67	0.67	0.77
Suffolk	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.26	0.25	0.27	0.31	0.33
Sunderland	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.1	0.16	0.18	0.21	0.23	0.29
Surrey	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.31	0.29	0.25	0.28	0.28
Sutton	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.41	0.26	0.31	0.37	0.51
Swindon	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.2	0.23	0.20	0.23	0.30	0.39
Tameside	0.3	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.24	0.36	0.32	0.27	0.33
Telford and Wrekin	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.4	0.28	0.27	0.29	0.22	0.23
Thurrock	0.8	0.8	0.6	0.7	0.54	0.53	0.57	0.68	0.66
Torbay	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.36	0.34	0.35	0.29	0.30
Tower Hamlets	1.7	1.4	1.5	1.5	1.38	1.20	1.19	1.22	1.27
Trafford	0.3	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.17	0.17	0.18	0.19	0.12
Wakefield	0.7	0.7	0.6	0.5	0.51	0.55	0.55	0.53	0.50
Walsall	0.8	0.6	0.7	0.5	0.47	0.47	0.40	0.39	0.44
Waltham Forest	0.8	0.7	0.7	0.7	0.53	0.54	0.68	0.53	0.63
Wandsworth	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.6	0.56	0.58	0.57	0.57	0.64
Warrington	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.31	0.33	0.47	0.52	0.67
Warwickshire	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.16	0.20	0.19	0.16	0.18
West Berkshire	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.36	0.30	0.31	0.34	0.30
West Sussex	0.2	0.2	0.2	0.3	0.26	0.25	0.21	0.23	0.24
Westminster, City of	1.1	1.4	0.9	0.9	0.77	0.62	0.51	0.68	0.87
Wigan	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.3	0.25	0.25	0.24	0.28	0.31
Wiltshire	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.30	0.30	0.31	0.30	0.31
Windsor and Maidenhead	0.3	0.3	0.4	0.3	0.28	0.34	0.40	0.37	0.29
Wirral	0.5	0.5	0.4	0.4	0.39	0.41	0.30	0.27	0.26
Wokingham	0.3	0.2	0.3	0.3	0.21	0.20	0.21	0.25	0.26
Wolverhampton	0.9	0.8	0.7	0.6	0.44	0.49	0.51	0.51	0.56
Worcestershire	0.4	0.3	0.3	0.3	0.17	0.19	0.23	0.22	0.27
York, City of	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.4	0.41	0.45	0.32	0.30	0.38

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