Question to the Department for Education:

To ask His Majesty's Government how much was spent on the inspection of independent schools by Ofsted in the five financial years prior to 5 July 2024.

Ofsted inspects around 50% of the 2,496 (July 2025) registered private schools in England. There is currently disparity between the fees charged for inspections and full cost recovery.

The table below sets out the budgeted cost of inspections compared to the fee income, over the last three years. Ofsted do not hold comparable data for the 2020/21 and 2021/22 financial years as Ofsted inspections were heavily affected by COVID-19 and were therefore not typical years of inspection activity.

Government policy is that costs associated with inspections by government bodies should be recoverable. This will reduce the need for government subsidy. The government is considering options to close the gap.