Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what criteria determines whether a proprietor of an unregistered independent school is committing an offence.

It is a criminal offence for any person to operate an unregistered independent school. The criteria applied to determine whether a proprietor is committing an offence are those which are contained in:

• Section 96 of the Education and Skills Act 2008;

• the associated definition of “independent school” in Section 463 of the Education Act 1996; and

• how the constituent elements of “independent school “ are defined elsewhere in the 1996 Act and other legislation.

There are a number of relevant factors which are taken into account to determine whether a proprietor is committing an offence. For example, whether the proprietor is conducting an independent school, whether the institution is registered in the register of independent schools maintained by the Secretary of State under Section 95 of the Education and Skills Act 2008, and whether the institution is a non-maintained special school to be determined by reference to the definition of “non-maintained special school” in Section 337A of the Education Act 1996.