COMPENSATION amounting to £15,350 has been paid out by City of York Council after children were injured while in school.

The council paid the sum between 2008 and 2011 to five families after children were hurt while in school. During that time ten other personal injury claims made against the council were unsuccessful.

Between 2011 and the current date, a ten further claims for compensation have also been unsuccessful.

The figures, which were obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, do not include details of how children were injured as the council refused to say on the grounds it "could lead to identification of individuals".

Lisa Nyhan, corporate transactional and business services manager, City of York Council, said: “Maintaining the highest levels of health and safety is a priority for our schools and educational centres.

"Any claims made as a result of an accident are assessed against our legal liability by our external claims handlers and the level of payment decided upon in line with established guidance.”

City of York Council said the fact it had not made any payment in the last few years is due to the fact that claims are ongoing and liability has yet to be established or that, based on the information available, the authority is not legally liable.

They come after it was reported compensation amounting to £68,000 has been paid out to families in North Yorkshire after children have been injured at school.

Payouts included £26,000 for trips, slips and falls, and £12,000 as a result of injuries in PE lessons. A further £6,800 was paid out due to defective equipment. The figures relate to compensation paid out over a five-year period.

Harrogate had the highest number of attempted personal injury claims, with 13, while Hambleton had 11, Selby had ten and Ryedale and Scarborough had eight.

However, not all were successful with fewer than five successful claims each for Hambleton, Harrogate, Scarborough and Selby and five in Ryedale.

The figures, obtained by health and safety experts ELAS, show that 11 out of 15 of Yorkshire’s education authorities recorded 171 successful personal injuries claims against schools since September 2008, amounting to £1.3million.