Question to the Ministry of Justice:

To ask the Secretary of State for Justice, with reference to (a) Section 51(2) of the Children and Families Act 2014 and (b) the powers of the First-tier Tribunal (Special Educational Needs and Disability) to issue binding orders following appeal hearings, what (i) monitoring and (ii) reporting arrangements on compliance with binding Tribunal orders have been implemented following appeal hearings, broken down by local authority; what formal route of escalation is available to people where rulings relating to those appeal hearings are not implemented; and how many (A) notifications and (B) complaints relating to non-compliance have been received from (1) appellants and (2) local authorities since 2022.

Data about how many notices of intention under Rule 7 (3) (by local authority) have been issued, and whether any barring orders have been made, by the First Tier Tribunal (Health, Education and Social Care Chamber) in each of the last three years could only be obtained at disproportionate cost.

Data on non-compliance, complaints about non-compliance, or binding orders made, following a decision made by the Tribunal is not held centrally. The Tribunal does not have powers of enforcement over local authorities. Escalation of non-compliance of a Tribunal’s decision is to the Local Authority. If the decision is still not being complied with, this could be escalated to the Local Authority Ombudsman. Guidance about this is provided to appellants.