Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the number of complaints received on the online Teacher Regulation Agency system for reporting teacher misconduct.

The Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA) plays an important role in regulating the teaching profession in England, and considering cases of serious teacher misconduct. Teachers are the most important factor in a child’s education and the overwhelming majority are highly competent and effective, and never engage in any form of misconduct.

The TRA will only consider allegations of the most serious cases of misconduct. A referral may be made to the TRA by employers, the public, the police, the Disclosure and Barring Service and other regulators and interested organisations. The TRA considers all referrals it receives and where the allegations could amount to serious misconduct by a teacher, the TRA will impartially investigate the matter and, if necessary, take appropriate action.

The TRA reviews all feedback on its processes. It does not sub-categorise complaints specifically in relation to the online referral service.

It is important that processes relating to teacher misconduct are progressed without any political involvement and Ministers in this Department cannot have any involvement in these independent investigations, related processes, and decisions.