1999 examples: suspensions, cost

Norfolk: 15 £192,000 Cheshire: 15 £135,000 Knowsley and Merseyside: 10 £131,000 Bristol: 7 £90,000 Lambeth: 6 £60,000 Wirral: 5 £68,500

Some local education authorities have had as many as 15 teachers suspended on full pay at one time.

The authorities and teachers' unions want changes to the process.

All 173 authorities in England and Wales were contacted by researchers for BBC Radio 5 Live, and 95 responded.

They were asked how many of their teachers were suspended in the last week of October this year.

Almost all cases unfounded

Fifty of them said no teachers were suspended, but the other 45 had 102, who will typically be off work for a term.

They included head teachers, deputies and heads of department as well as classroom teachers.

In the whole of last year, the 95 authorities had 220 people suspended. It cost them £2m in salaries and the costs of providing supply teachers to cover for those who were off work.

If that pattern holds true for the other authorities, it would suggest that about 400 teachers a year are facing allegations, at a cost of about £4m.

Legal representatives at teachers' unions say that most of these teachers end up being cleared, and back in the classroom, or quit due to humiliation. Only a handful are actually dismissed.

Local authorities and unions want the process to be speeded up and perhaps altered, so that teachers facing allegations other than of sexual abuse need not be suspended until there is substantial evidence against them.