Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what representations they have received from Ofsted about changing legislation to ensure that out-of-school settings providing a religious or narrow curriculum can only operate legally if they are registered with the Department for Education; and what steps they intend to take in response to any such representations.

Any education setting which provides full-time provision to 5 or more pupils of compulsory school age (or one or more pupils of compulsory school age who is looked after or has an education, health, and care plan) is required to register with the Department for Education as a school. It is a criminal offence to conduct an independent school that is not registered.

The current definition of full-time education does not capture settings which offer only a narrow curriculum, even if this teaching takes place throughout all, or most, of the school day. The department consulted on proposals last year to change the definition of independent schools in primary legislation to incorporate such settings. We are currently considering responses to this consultation and will confirm further steps in due course.

The department is considering changes to the registration requirement for schools. The consultation on Regulating Independent Educational Institutions was launched on 14 February 2020 and withdrawn on 7 May due to the COVID-19 outbreak. The consultation was relaunched on 13 October 2020 and closed on 27 November. Following analysis, we will set out the government response in due course.