Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what body is responsible for assessing whether colleges have failed in their legal duty under section 45 of the Education Act 1997.

Under Section 125 of the Education and Inspections Act 2006, Ofsted are required to comment on the careers guidance provided at colleges to 16 to 18 year olds and students aged up to 25 with an education, health and care plan as part of their inspection reports. As part of the Education Inspection Framework, Ofsted will also inspect and comment on careers advice when inspecting other further education and skills providers.

The ‘Careers Education in England’ report, published by the Careers and Enterprise Company in 2020, shows that since the launch of the government’s careers strategy in 2017, careers education performance in schools and colleges has consistently improved across all measures. On average, schools and colleges were found to meet 3.75 of the Gatsby benchmarks, compared to 1.87 in the 2016/17 academic year. We are also seeing accelerated progress for schools and colleges in the enterprise adviser network and in careers hubs.