Education Act 1944

70 Registration of independent schools.

(1) The Minister shall appoint one of his officers to be Registrar of Independent Schools ; and it shall be the duty of the Registrar of Independent Schools to keep a register of all independent schools, which shall be open to public inspection at all reasonable times, and, subject as hereinafter provided, to register therein any independent school of which the proprietor makes application for the purpose in the prescribed manner and furnishes the prescribed particulars :

Provided that—

(a) no independent school shall be registered if, by virtue of an order made under the provisions hereinafter contained, the proprietor is disqualified from being the proprietor of an independent school or the school premises are disqualified from being used as a school, or if the school premises are used or proposed to be used for any purpose for which they are disqualified by virtue of any such order ; and

(b) the registration of any school shall be provisional only until the Minister, after the school has been inspected on his behalf under the provisions of Part IV of this Act, gives notice to the proprietor that the registration is final.

(2) If the Minister is satisfied that he is in possession of sufficient information with respect to any independent school or any class of independent schools, and that registration of that school or the schools comprised in that class is unnecessary, the Minister may by order exempt that school or schools of that class from registration, and any school so exempted shall be deemed to be a registered school.

(3) If after the expiration of six months from the date of the commencement of this Part of this Act any person—

(a) conducts an independent school (whether established before or after the commencement of that Part) which is not a registered school or a provisionally registered school; or

(b) being the proprietor of an independent school does any act calculated to lead to the belief that the school is a registered school while it is a provisionally registered school ;

he shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding twenty pounds or in the case of a second or subsequent conviction to a fine not exceeding fifty pounds or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding three months or to both such imprisonment and such fine.

(4) The Minister may make regulations prescribing the particulars to be furnished to the Registrar of Independent Schools by the proprietors of such schools, and such regulations may provide for the notification to the Registrar of any changes in the particulars so furnished and as to the circumstances in which the Minister may order the name of any school to be deleted from the register in the event of the Registrar being unable to obtain sufficient particulars thereof.