Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what steps his Department has taken against the proprietors of unregistered schools in each of the last five years; and how many such cases have been referred to the CPS in that same period.

Ofsted already has the power to carry out inspections, where it has reasonable cause to believe that an unregistered school is being operated on the premises.

Since January 2016, we have operated and funded a joint team with Ofsted to investigate unregistered schools, which has had significant success. In the last two years this team have conducted 192 inspections and issued 50 warning notices to suspected illegal schools, 38 of which have ceased to operate or have closed.

The offence of operating an unregistered independent educational establishment is created by section 96 of the Education and Skills Act 2008. Since 5 January 2015, two cases were referred to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) for early advice following which investigations were discontinued. Two further cases were referred to the CPS for a charging decision. Neither of these cases met the evidential test under the Code for Crown Prosecutors. A further case is currently with the CPS for advice.