To ask the Minister of Education, pursuant to AQW 33227/22-27, whether there is an issue of underreporting in secondary schools.

As reported in earlier correspondence with the member, my Department does not hold information on assaults on staff or pupils in its schools.

Reporting information is maintained by the Education Authority (EA), and my officials have asked them to provide a response for this AQW.

The EA utilises an On-line Accident Reporting System for schools to digitally report accidents. While the EA does not hold any data on levels of under-reporting at post primary school level, it is aware that 89% of controlled and maintained post primary schools currently have active accounts on the on-line accident reporting system.

There is an active work stream within EA Health and Safety Service to address the remaining 11% of post primary schools to create accounts and report accidents via the on-line accident reporting system.