Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Lord Agnew of Oulton on 5 January (HL4335), what steps they are taking to ensure that the 34 unregistered schools that ceased to operate as a result of Ofsted action will not re-establish themselves elsewhere, given that no operators of the illegal closed schools were prosecuted.

In most cases, proprietors voluntarily complied with the law following the inspection by Ofsted, either by closing completely or by reducing their operation to a lawful part time provision. Some settings also went on to register as independent schools, so that they could legitimately re-open or increase their hours to full-time. Ofsted carries out further inspections without notice where it has reasonable cause to believe that an unregistered independent school continues to operate, either at the same premises or if it has re-established elsewhere. The Ofsted team draws significantly on local knowledge, from the local authority and other sources, on where such settings may be operating. The Department for Education/Ofsted joint team works together closely on all these issues. This remains a high priority for both the government and Ofsted.