Expand Ofsted powers for unregistered settings
IICSA · Child Protection in Religious Organisations and Settings Investigation Report · Issued 2 September 2021 · Addressed to: UK Government
Source — verbatim from the inquiry
●Inquiry recommendation, C
The government should introduce legislation to: change the definition of full-time education, and to bring any setting that is the pupil's primary place of education within the scope of the definition of a registered educational setting; and provide the Office for Standards in Education, Children's Services and Skills (Ofsted) with sufficient powers to examine the quality of child protection when it undertakes inspections of suspected unregistered institutions.
IICSA, Child Protection in Religious Organisations and Settings Investigation Report · 2 Sep 2021 Source PDF →
Published evidence summary
Publicly available evidence relating to this recommendation:
- In May 2023, the government stated that it would consider changes to the definition of full-time education (Government Response to IICSA Final Report, HM Government, May 2023).
- No published legislation changing the definition of full-time education as specified in this recommendation has been identified to March 2026.
Response — verbatim from government
●UK Government
On 2 March 2022, the UK government stated that in 2020 it had consulted to legislate to amend the registration requirements for independent education settings. It confirmed that it had considered responses to the consultation and would publish its response. The UK government also stated that the Department for Education previously committed to increasing the powers available to Ofsted when conducting inspections under section 97 of the 2008 Act, including in the Integrated Communities Action Plan 2019.
UK Government · 22 May 2023 Written response →
Evidence trail — what's actually happened since
No published activity has been recorded against this recommendation yet.
Each entry above links to a primary source — gov.uk written statement, consultation response document, or inspection report. The Index does not characterise government intent; it tracks what has been published.
How this page is built
Source and Response are verbatim from primary documents. The Evidence trail records published activity since — written statements, consultation outcomes, inspection findings, parliamentary references. The Index does not paraphrase or characterise intent; it tracks what has been published. Where the evidence is the absence of action (a missed deadline, a slipped timetable), that absence is documented from primary sources rather than inferred.
This recommendation's data is verified periodically against primary sources. The Index is monitored for staleness weekly.