Provisional figures from the latest annual survey of attendance and absence for the school year 2000-01 show that primary school pupils missed 5.02 per cent of school sessions due to authorised absence, including sickness, bereavement or religious observance. Unauthorised absence, from temporary exclusions to truancy, accounted for 1.54 per cent of missed sessions by primary school children. The figures have slightly risen since 1999-2000.