To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of providing Ofsted with more powers to tackle unregistered schools.
Answered on
13 March 2018
The department operate and fund a joint team with Ofsted on unregistered schools. Ofsted can and does carry out inspections without notice where it has reasonable cause to believe that an unregistered independent school continues to operate, either at the same premises or if it has re-established elsewhere. Ofsted draws significantly on local knowledge, from the local authority and other sources, on where such settings may be operating, and has achieved great success in securing that settings close or cease operating illegally.
We work together closely with Ofsted on all of these issues, including on the extent of their powers, which we keep continually under review.