Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many unregistered alternative providers in England provide full time education of over 18 hours per week to school-age pupils.

Any education setting which provides full-time provision to five or more pupils of compulsory school age (or one or more pupils of compulsory school age who is looked after or has an education, health and care (EHC) plan), is not maintained by a local authority and is not a non-maintained special school, is required to register with the department as an independent school. It is a criminal offence to conduct an independent school that is not registered.

Any unregistered alternative provider which provided full-time education of over 18 hours per week to five or more children (or one or more children who are looked after or who have an EHC plan), may be operating unlawfully as an unregistered independent school. ​

Since those conducting such a setting are committing a criminal offence, they do not generally inform the department about the school’s operation. It is not therefore possible to accurately estimate the number of unregistered alternative providers in England which are providing full-time education to school-age pupils.

It is possible that some unregistered alternative providers are providing more than 18 hours per week to school-age pupils in ways which mean the setting is not operating as an unregistered independent school because, for instance, it caters for fewer than five pupils of compulsory school age. The department does not collect data at a provider level about unregistered providers.