COMPENSATION amounting to £68,000 has been paid out to families in North Yorkshire after children have been injured at school.

Figures obtained under the Freedom of Information Act include £26,000 paid out following 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 by North Yorkshire County Council - which dies not include schools in York - over a five-year period.

A spokesman for North Yorkshire County Council said: “North Yorkshire County Council works with all of its 373 schools and educational establishments to maintain the highest standards of health and safety. Any payments made for compensation as a result of an accident are assessed against our legal liability by our external claims handlers and the level of payment decided upon by the legal system.”

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 largest payout was £10,000 over a slip, trip or fall. A sum of £4500 was paid out over a physical assault and two payouts of £3250 and £2500 over pupils being hit by moving or falling objects. A further £940 was paid over "defective care".

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.

Rotherham paid out the highest amount in compensation, costing the local authority £289,851.

Incidents of note in Yorkshire included fractured bones, while one child was scalded by hot liquid and another suffered an electric shock while using a soldering iron. Many injuries resulted from unsafe classroom, playground and PE equipment.