Education Act 2005

Inspection teams

3 (1) Every inspection must be conducted by a registered inspector or member of the Inspectorate with the assistance of a team (“an inspection team”); and no person may act as a member of an inspection team unless—

(a) he is enrolled in the list kept by the Chief Inspector under paragraph 4, or

(b) he is a member of the Inspectorate and (if he is not the Chief Inspector) is authorised so to act by the Chief Inspector.

(2) It is the duty of the inspector conducting the inspection to ensure that—

(a) at least one member of the inspection team is a person—

(i) without personal experience in the management of any school or in the provision of education in any school (otherwise than as a governor or in any other voluntary capacity), and

(ii) whose primary function on the team is not that of providing financial or business expertise, and

(b) no member of the inspection team falls within a category of person prescribed for the purposes of this sub-paragraph.

(3) Otherwise, the composition of the inspection team is to be determined by the inspector conducting the inspection, subject (in the case of a registered inspector) to his complying with any condition imposed under section 25(4)(c).

(4) Any experience of a kind mentioned in sub-paragraph (2)(a) which it is reasonable to regard as insignificant, having regard to the purposes of sub-paragraph (2), may be ignored by the inspector conducting the inspection.

(5) It is the duty of the inspector conducting the inspection to ensure that no person takes part in an inspection if he has, or has at any time had, any connection with—

(a) the school in question,

(b) any person who is employed at the school,

(c) any person who is a member of the school’s governing body, or

(d) the proprietor of the school,

of a kind which might reasonably be taken to raise doubts about his ability to act impartially in relation to that school.