Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government how many illegal schools have been closed down, and how many people have been prosecuted for running an illegal school, in each of the last five years.

We are determined to keep children safe in and out of school and have made it very clear that it is an offence to operate an unregistered independent school. We announced in January funding for Ofsted to establish a dedicated team of specialist inspectors to investigate such settings. Since that time, there’s been a significant escalation in Ofsted investigations of settings, which has resulted in the closure of many.

However, the numbers of unregistered schools, including closures fluctuates all the time as new ones come to our attention, existing ones are closed down, or are confirmed as not operating as schools. Such settings also proceed to go through the registration process and may be operating in some capacity, but on a part-time basis which is not an offence.

No prosecutions have yet been taken but we are working closely with Ofsted and the Crown Prosecution Service on taking forward prosecutions of individuals running them, where appropriate.