Citation, commencement and interpretation

1.-(1) These Regulations may be cited as the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007 (Disclosure of Pupil Information by Welsh Ministers) Regulations 2011 and come into force on the day after the day on which they are made.

(2) In these Regulations-

"the Act" means the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007;

"the 1996 Act" means the Education Act 1996(2);

"pupil" has the meaning given by section 3 of the 1996 Act(3);

"registered pupil" has the meaning given by section 434 of the 1996 Act(4);

"school" has the meaning given by section 4 of the 1996 Act(5); and

"unique pupil number" means a combination of numbers and letters which are allocated to a pupil and are particular to that pupil, by use of a formula determined by the Welsh Ministers.

Disclosure of individual pupil information

2. The Welsh Ministers may disclose to the Statistics Board the following information held about individual pupils-

(a)the pupil's-

(i)unique pupil number and any former unique pupil number;

(ii)surname;

(iii)first name;

(iv)middle name or, if more than one, each middle name;

(v)gender;

(vi)date of birth;

(vii)ethnic group and source of that information; and

(viii)date of admission to the school referred to in sub-paragraph (d);

(b)the postcode of the home where the pupil normally resides;

(c)the pupil's level of fluency in English, where the pupil's first language is neither English nor Welsh; and

(d)the name of the school at which the pupil is a registered pupil; or where the pupil is registered at more than one school, the name of the school that the pupil mainly attends.

Purposes for which disclosure is authorised

3. Information disclosed under regulation 2 may only be used by the Statistics Board for either or both of the following statistical purposes-

(a)the production of population statistics under section 20 (production of statistics) of the Act;

(b)the assessment of census returns under the Census Act 1920(6).

Restriction on further disclosure of personal information

4. In the application of section 39(4)(7) of the Act to personal information which is disclosed to the Statistics Board under regulation 2-

(a)paragraph (a) applies only to the extent that-

(i)a disclosure is required by any enactment; or

(ii)a disclosure is permitted under section 41 (disclosure of information to service providers) of the Act but only in connection with either or both of the purposes specified in regulation 3;

(b)paragraphs (d), (f) and (h) do not apply.

EXPLANATORY NOTE

(This note is not part of the Regulations)

These Regulations provide that the Welsh Ministers may disclose to the Statistics Board the information listed in regulation 2 about individual pupils.

Regulation 3 provides that the Statistics Board may only use that information in order to enable it to produce population statistics and/or for the assessment of the census returns.

Regulation 4 places further restrictions on the circumstances under which personal information may be disclosed by the Statistics Board. Regulation 4 does this by modifying section 39(4) of the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007, which provides the exceptions to the prohibition on disclosure of personal information held by the Statistics Board under section 39(1).

An impact assessment has not been produced for this instrument as no impact on the private or voluntary sectors is foreseen.