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PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
(22 July 2025)

Question Asked

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how much funding her Department has provided to Ofsted for the inspection of independent schools in each of the last five years.

Asked by:
Andrew Pakes (Labour)

Answer

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 still in part affected by Covid and were therefore not typical years of inspection activity.

Year

Full cost - £million

Fee income - £million

% of costs recovered

2022/23

6.8

1.9

28%

2023/24

6.4

2.3

36%

2024/25

6.5

2.2

34%

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.


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