Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many unregistered schools there are in England and Wales.
Answered by Edward Timpson
We are currently investigating 21 institutions that may be operating as unregistered independent schools in England and have not applied for registration. However, this number often changes as new settings are established and existing ones close, or are confirmed not to be operating as schools. We have taken robust steps to tackle unregistered schools and improve safeguarding which includes being clear it is a criminal offence to operate an unregistered independent school. All these institutions have been warned that it is a criminal offence to operate as an unregistered school. We are asking Ofsted to visit and to prepare cases for prosecution as necessary.
We do not hold data on the numbers in Wales as the Department is not the regulatory body for independent schools in Wales.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment she has made of the effectiveness of regional school commissioners' powers for identifying unregistered pupils being taught at home.
Answered by Edward Timpson
The role of Regional Schools Commissioners is to work with school leaders to promote and monitor academies and free schools. The list of their responsibilities does not include unregistered pupils or home education.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people were hired by Ofsted on a consultancy basis in 2015; and what the overall cost was of their employment.
Answered by Nick Gibb
These are matters for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw. I have asked him to write to you and a copy of his reply will be placed in the House Libraries.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many people were employed by Ofsted on short-term contracts in 2015.
Answered by Nick Gibb
These are matters for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw. I have asked him to write to you and a copy of his reply will be placed in the House Libraries.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many permanent employees Ofsted has; and how many such employees receive salaries in excess of £100,000 per annum.
Answered by Nick Gibb
These are matters for Her Majesty’s Chief Inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw. I have asked him to write to you and a copy of his reply will be placed in the House Libraries.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much parents and guardians have been fined for taking their children on term-time holidays in the academic year 2013-14.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The Department for Education does not hold information on the reason for a penalty notice (fine) being issued to a parent or guardian.
The department collects and publishes local authority level annual data on the number of penalty notices (fines) issued to parents in England, for offences relating to Section 444(1) of the Education Act 1996. The most recent data published by the department is for the academic year 2012/13.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what the attainment gap is between pupils receiving free school meals achieving five or more GCSEs including English and mathematics and their peers (a) nationally and (b) in the South West region.
Answered by Nick Gibb
Information on the percentage of pupils eligible for free school meals, and all other pupils, who achieve five or more GCSEs including English and mathematics is published at national and regional level as part of the “GCSE and equivalent attainment by pupil characteristics: 2014” statistical first release. [1]
[1] 2013/14 revised regions level tables can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/402634/SFR06_2015_National_and_LA.xls. (Table 1 and Table 5 for national and regional figures respectively)
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many heads of academies are paid more than the Prime Minister.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The data provided to the Department by schools in the November 2014 School Workforce Census shows that 52 head teachers in academy schools in England were paid a salary of £142,500 or more.
Of the other roles within the scope of the School Workforce Census, there were fewer than five teachers in academies receiving a salary of £142,500 or more.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many employees of academies, in which roles, are paid more than the Prime Minister.
Answered by Nick Gibb
The data provided to the Department by schools in the November 2014 School Workforce Census shows that 52 head teachers in academy schools in England were paid a salary of £142,500 or more.
Of the other roles within the scope of the School Workforce Census, there were fewer than five teachers in academies receiving a salary of £142,500 or more.
Asked by: John Pugh (Liberal Democrat - Southport)
Question to the Department for Education:
To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many English secondary schools belong to an academy trust which has more than one school.
Answered by Edward Timpson
As of 29 October 2015, there are 1,093 English schools which provide some form of secondary education and are part of academy trusts with more than one school.