Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the Written Answer by Baroness Barran on 20 February (HL5445), what enforcement activity they have undertaken in each of the last five years in respect of unregistered alternative education provision against (1) such providers, (2) schools engaging such providers, and (3) local authorities.

Unregistered alternative provision are settings that provide alternative provision, but don’t meet the threshold to register as independent schools. Unregistered schools are required to register as an independent school if they offer full time education for:

• 5 or more pupils of compulsory school age
• 1 or more pupils of compulsory school age with an education, health and care plan
• 1 or more pupils of compulsory school age who are looked-after by the local council

Ofsted publish statistics on their activity investigating suspected unregistered schools. Since 2016, 956 settings have been investigated. Of these, 33% are classed as alternative provision providers. This information is available at: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/unregistered-schools-management-information.