Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to monitor unregistered schools.

Unregistered schools are settings that operate as an independent school without having registered with the department. It is a criminal offence under section 96 of the Education and Skills 2008 Act for a person to operate an unregistered independent school. Where the department finds evidence that a school is operating unlawfully, the department will seek to take action by working with Ofsted, the police and the Crown Prosecution Service as necessary.

Since those responsible for conducting unregistered schools are committing an offence, they do not generally inform the department about the school’s operation, it is therefore not possible to monitor such settings.

However, the department and Ofsted continue to investigate any setting where there is evidence to suggest that an unregistered independent school is operating. Ofsted has powers under section 97 of the Education and Skills Act 2008 that allows for unannounced inspections of settings believed to be operating in breach of the registration requirement.

Ofsted publishes statistics on the number and outcomes of investigations carried out into unregistered schools. Statistics published for the period 1 January 2016 to 31 August 2023, show that 767 inspections of suspected unregistered independent schools took place. Joint work between the department and Ofsted has led to 180 of these settings changing their provision to no longer operate unlawfully, in breach of the 2008 Act. In that time six successful prosecutions have been brought against those responsible for conducting illegal settings.

More information and a link to the Education and Skills Act 2008 can be found here: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2008/25/contents.