Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many confidentiality agreements have been entered into with members of the teaching profession (a) without and (b) following an Ofsted inspection in each of the last five years.

The Department for Education does not hold data on the numbers of confidentiality agreements entered into by teachers without or following an Ofsted inspection. This information would be held by individual school employers.

Settlement agreements, previously known as compromise agreements, are sometimes used when teachers leave a school. These agreements are voluntary and neither employers nor employees are obliged to enter into them. Such agreements usually include a confidentiality clause, but they cannot be used to suppress information such as that relating to pupil safety, nor can they be used to prevent someone from making a protected disclosure under whistleblowing arrangements.