Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of whether financial regulations may be breached when contractors sub-contract work at a multi-academy trust to the sponsor of that trust.

The financial regulations for all academy trusts are set out in the Academies Financial Handbook (AFH), which is a publicly available document updated annually on GOV.UK. The Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) conducts a risk-based programme of work each year to obtain assurance in respect of the financial transactions of academy trusts, including compliance with the requirements of the AFH. If there are any instances where financial wrongdoing is suspected, the ESFA may conduct investigations and will publish the findings.

The AFH is reviewed annually and was considerably revised for the academic year commencing 1 September 2018.

Academy trusts are subject to annual audit, where the auditor will report any transactions they identify which have breached our requirements.