Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Education

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-04-08.

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps her Department is taking to (a) identify and (b) take action against unregistered schools.

Edward Timpson

We have been working closely with Ofsted and local authorities to identify unregistered schools, and the Chief Inspector has powers to make unannounced visits to any institution that he suspects is operating unlawfully as an independent school. We have also given Ofsted additional resources so that they can go out to locate and investigate unregistered schools and draw up a programme for inspecting them to collect evidence to support prosecutions.

Institutions that are suspected of operating as unregistered schools receive a very clear warning from the Department that it is a criminal offence and that they must cease operating immediately.

To raise awareness, we have published two statements setting how we regulate and intervene in independent schools and details of when we will take legal action against unregistered schools.

The statements were announced by the Secretary of State on 19 January 2016, as part of a package to protect children from extremism. The announcement, the press release and the statements are available on GOV.UK at:

https://www.gov.uk/government/speeches/nicky-morgan-speaks-about-tackling-extremism;

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/new-drive-to-protect-children-from-spell-of-twisted-ideologies; and

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/regulating-independent-schools

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