What steps he is taking to improve standards of discipline in schools; and if he will make a statement.

We have made a commitment that all schools will have good behaviour, strong discipline, order and safety. To secure this ambition, we have launched a new strategy to enable all schools to achieve good or outstanding behaviour standards. The strategy includes a range of measures to support and challenge schools. It builds on existing work that has resulted in the number of schools with inadequate behaviour being driven down to less than 1 per cent.

What the Minister has said is splendid, but the reality of the situation is that more and more of our children are being excluded from school because of behavioural problems and Government targets. What is the Government's strategy for dealing with those children who, in reality, have behavioural problems?

May I say to the hon. Gentleman that the number of young people being excluded from our schools with permanent exclusions has reduced? One of the most effective ways of dealing with behavioural problems in schools is what many schools do across the country-they have a firm code of conduct that is properly enforced with the support of the parents, alongside proper measures within the school to deal with those young people who cause a problem. One of the most effective ways of doing that, which I would encourage-in fact, I did it when I was a deputy head teacher-was to have internal methods of exclusion that keep young people in school and prevent them from having problems outside school while preventing them from undermining the educational entitlement of the other pupils in the class.