Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, who the Regional School Commissioners are; how many schools are located in each of the regions for which they are responsible; and how many schools in their area each commissioner has not visited since taking up that role.
There are eight Regional Schools Commissioners. Profiles on each commissioner are published online: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/schools-commissioners-group/about/our-governance.
Regional Schools Commissioners have responsibility for a region. The commissioners are: Sir David Carter (South West England); Dominic Herrington (South England and South East London); Martin Post (South Central England and North West London); Dr Tim Coulson (East of England and North East London); Pank Patel (West Midlands); Jennifer Bexon-Smith (East Midlands and the Humber); Victoria Beer (Lancashire and West Yorkshire); and Janet Renou (North of England).
The number of schools in each region is listed in the table below. This number is the number of free schools, studio schools, University Technical Colleges, academies and local authority maintained schools.
Region | Number of schools |
South West England | 2331 |
South England and South East London | 3297 |
South Central England and North West London | 2982 |
East of England and North East London | 2376 |
West Midlands | 2671 |
East Midlands and the Humber | 2667 |
Lancashire and West Yorkshire | 3389 |
North of England | 1816 |
We do not hold data on the number of schools in each region which have not been visited by the Regional Schools Commissioner. Regional Schools Commissioners are responsible for approving new academies, intervening in underperforming academies and free schools in their area, and matching underperforming maintained schools with a strong academy sponsor.