Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 14 November 2022 to Question 82258 Private Education: Registration, how many institutions in England are under investigation by her Department; and how many of the ten institutions under suspicion for operating as unregistered independent schools are currently operating.

Under Section 97 of the Education and Skills Act 2008, His Majesty’s Chief Inspector is able to inspect without notice any institution where she has reasonable cause to believe that the criminal offence of conducting an unregistered independent school is being committed.

As these inspections form part of ongoing criminal investigations, it is not possible to provide real-time updates on the number and outcomes of these inspections. This includes the number of ongoing investigations and the number of suspected unregistered independent schools which are currently operating.

Ofsted publish statistics on their activity with regards to unregistered schools. These are updated twice-yearly and are available here: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/unregistered-schools-management-information.