PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Unemployment: Young People (4 November 2014)

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the reasons for the increasing number of 16 to 18 year olds whose destinations are unknown in her Department's statistics on 16 to 18 year olds not in education, employment or training.

Asked by:
Sir Stephen Timms (Labour)

Local authorities are responsible for tracking young people’s participation in education and training. They may record young people as ‘destination not known’ for a number of reasons. It may be that a local authority does not have effective information sharing arrangements with schools and colleges, or because young people have left their last known address and cannot be contacted.

The Department for Education publishes annual local level data showing the proportion of 16 to 18 year olds whose destination was not known, alongside statistics on 16 to 18 year olds not in education, employment or training. The proportion of 16 to 18 year olds whose destination was not known across England as a whole fell from 10.8% at the end of 2012 to 9.2% at the end of 2013.

Answered by:
Nick Boles (Independent)
11 November 2014