17.Section 4 requires each education provider to record all incidences of restraint or seclusion in its schools. Each education authority must inform the Scottish Ministers of the number of incidences of restraint and seclusion in schools under its management. Where the education provider is a grant-aided or independent school, it must report the number of incidences to the Scottish Ministers.
18.Subsection (4) contains a regulation-making power which allows the Scottish Ministers to require education providers to report incidences of restraint or seclusion to a person specified in the regulations, and subsection (5) allows those regulations to set out operational detail such as timescales, format and onward reporting duties. Its intention is to retain flexibility to establish a national reporting system in future, including the option of involving HM Inspectorate of Education in Scotland (HMIE). Regulations under subsection (4) may make different provision for different types of education provider and modify primary legislation. Subsection (8) requires the Scottish Ministers to prepare a report on the number of incidences of the use of restraint and seclusion each year and to lay the report after the end of each year. Subsection (9) enables the Scottish Ministers to specify, by regulations subject to consultation and affirmative procedure, types of restraint or seclusion that need not be recorded or reported. The effect is to allow proportionate exemptions where certain minimal or low risk interventions would not warrant formal data collection.
19.Under subsection (11) the end of each year will fall during school summer holidays, on 31 July.
Commentary on Sections Section 4 – Duty to record and report on use of restraint and seclusion