Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many essay mill and contract cheating companies have been (1) prosecuted, and (2) closed.

The use of companies that sell bespoke essays to students who pass the work off as their own undermines the reputation of the education system in this country, and devalues the hard work of those succeeding on their own merit.

While it is not currently a criminal offence to operate an essay mill, we are keeping the need for legislation under review. We are mindful however, that countries who have introduced legislation to make the operation of essay mills illegal, appear to have had limited success in pursuing successful prosecutions using that legislation.

In 2016, the Quality Assurance Agency (QAA) found there were approximately 17,000 instances of academic offences per year in the UK.

Our current focus is on non-legislative measures and we expect educational institutions to do everything in their power to prevent students being tempted by these companies. In a university context, that may be through making sure their students are aware of the severe consequences they face under the terms of their student contract if they are caught cheating. The most recent guidance from the QAA highlights the importance of severe sanctions of suspension or expulsion if ‘extremely serious academic misconduct’ has been discovered.

On 20 March 2019, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education challenged PayPal to stop processing payments for essay mills. PayPal is now working with businesses associated with essay writing services to ensure its platform is not used to facilitate deceptive and fraudulent practices in education. Google and YouTube have also responded by removing hundreds of advertisements for essay writing services and promotional content from their sites.

In addition, the department published an education technology strategy on 3 April, attached, which challenges technology companies to identify how anti-cheating software can tackle the growth of essay mills and stay one step ahead of the cheats.

We are determined to beat the cheats who threaten the integrity of our higher education system.