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This report sets out the expenditure and performance of the Teaching Regulation Agency over the period 1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025.

This report was laid before Parliament on 10 July 2025.

Teaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts For the year ended 31 March 2025 An executive agency of the Department for Education HC 966Teaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts For the year ended 31 March 2025 An executive agency of the Department for Education Presented to the House of Commons pursuant to Section 6(4) of the Government Resources and Accounts Act 2000 Ordered by the House of Commons to be printed on 10 July 2025 HC 966 © Crown copyright 2025 This publication is licensed under the terms of the Open Government Licence v3.0 except where otherwise stated. To view this licence, visit nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/version/3. Where we have identified any third party copyright information you will need to obtain permission from the copyright holders concerned. This publication is available at: www.gov.uk/official-documents. Any enquiries regarding this publication should be sent to us at Department for Education, Piccadilly Gate, Store Street, Manchester, M1 2WD ISBN 978-1-5286-5593-4 E03329214 07/25 Printed on paper containing 40% recycled fibre content minimum. Printed in the UK by HH Associates Ltd. on behalf of the Controller of His Majesty’s Stationery Office.Contents Performance Report 7 Chief Executive’s foreword 8 Performance overview 9 Performance analysis 16 Financial review of the year 26 Performance in other matters 28 Key risks and issues 29 Forward look 30 Going concern 31 Accountability Report 33 Overview 34 Corporate governance report 35 Governance statement 38 Remuneration and staff report 45 Parliamentary accountability and audit report 59 The certificate and report of the Comptroller and Auditor General to the House of Commons 61 Financial Statements 67 Statement of Comprehensive Net Expenditure 68 Statement of Financial Position 69 Statement of Cash Flows 70 Statement of Changes in Taxpayers’ Equity 71 Notes to the accounts 72 Annexes 83 Annex A – Qualified Teacher Status awards 84 Annex B – Glossary of terms 90 5Performance Report 7 Chief Executive’s foreword Marc Cavey Chief Executive Teaching Regulation Agency (TRA or the Agency) I am pleased to present TRA’s annual report and accounts (ARA) relating to the year ended 31 March 2025. The first part of the document is the annual report which details TRA’s organisational structure and performance, as well as the key risks that the Agency has identified and is managing. It also sets out how the Agency has performed during this reporting year, including how it has significantly ramped up delivery in respect of its responsibilities for the regulation of both teacher misconduct and teacher qualifications. The accounts form the second part and provide a detailed insight into the costs associated with TRA’s operations and delivery. Marc Cavey Chief Executive 1 July 2025 8 | T eaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25Performance overview Overview A key area of focus during 2024-25 has been increasing TRA’s capacity to respond to growing demand across its services. The interventions made by the Agency’s leadership team have resulted in another record year of sustained performance. Following on from progress in 2023-24, TRA has implemented a number of improvements to our services, which have been supported through improved engagement and feedback from key stakeholders and users. The Agency’s Teacher Misconduct Unit (TMU) has improved casework timeliness, quality and performance across a number of areas. TMU has increased engagement with stakeholders to consider how misconduct processes and procedures impact on those involved in proceedings. As a direct result of this work and other improvements, the Agency held 301 misconduct hearings in 2024-25 (including set asides). This is the highest number of hearings that the TRA has delivered during a reporting year in its history, a 20% increase from 2023-24 and a 39% increase from 2022-23. This increase in the number of hearings being delivered by TRA is contributing towards more timely conclusion of cases – in 2024-25 cases were taking 6 weeks fewer to conclude on average than in the previous reporting year and over 16 weeks less than in 2022-23. Since February 2023, teachers who qualified in an increased number of countries and regions have been able to apply for qualified teacher status (QTS) in England. To respond to the significant increase in demand driven by this change, TRA expanded its capacity and capability within the Teacher Qualification Unit (TQU) resulting in 5,230 1 highly qualified overseas trained teachers (OTTs) achieving QTS during 2024-25, a 28% increase from 2023-24. Additionally, TRA has continued to modernise its customer-facing and back-end systems, working with the Department for Education (DfE or the Department) to introduce new, improved portals for employers and teachers, and to streamline the handling of enquiries about teachers’ qualifications records. The following report will provide greater detail on these and other aspects of TRA’s work during the 2024-25 reporting year. 9 Teaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25 | 1 Figur e includes teachers who applied for QTS in 2023-24 and 2024-25Statement of purpose and activities The TRA’s core purpose is to support employers, schools and headteachers to discharge their safeguarding responsibilities, as set out in the Agency’s Strategy and Business Plan. 2 Teaching in England is a regulated profession, and legislation sets out the training that a teacher has to undertake in order to teach in certain settings. TRA maintains the central record of qualified teachers, which provides employers with the opportunity to complete pre-employment checks to ensure they are employing teachers who are not prohibited from teaching and who are appropriately qualified for their role. This includes a record of individuals who have QTS and early years teacher status (EYTS) in England. The Agency is also responsible for the professional recognition of teachers who have qualified outside of England. The Agency, on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education, also takes action on receipt of allegations of serious teacher misconduct, as defined by The Teachers’ Disciplinary (England) Regulations 2012 3 and as amended by The Teachers’ Disciplinary (Amendment) (England) Regulations 2014. 4 Teachers are one of the most significant factors in a child’s education and the overwhelming majority never engage in any form of serious misconduct. In respect of the small minority that do, TRA is responsible for: • investigating serious misconduct, where a teacher’s alleged behaviour is fundamentally incompatible with being a teacher, and could lead to them being prohibited from teaching • prohibiting teachers from teaching who have been found to have committed serious misconduct • imposing an Interim Prohibition Or der (IPO) if it is considered to be in the public interest to do so Headteachers and governing bodies are responsible for managing teachers in relation to: • their competence and conduct, and taking action to address underperformance • less serious misconduct in their schools and relevant settings 10 | T eaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25 2 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/teaching-regulation-agency-corporate-plan/teaching-regulation-agency- corporate-plan-2021-to-2024 3 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2012/560/contents/made 4 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2014/1685/contents/madeVision, mission and core principles DfE’s purpose states “We are the department for opportunity. We work to deliver better life chances for all – breaking the link between background and success. We do this by protecting children and ensuring the delivery of higher standards of education, training and care. We create opportunities for children and learners to achieve and thrive today, so they have the freedom to succeed and flourish tomorrow, strengthening our society, powering our economy, and enabling equality.” TRA supports the realisation of this by striving to achieve excellence in all that it does and by providing a fair and consistent regulatory system for the teaching profession on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education. TRA does this by: • r egulating the teaching profession through fair and rigorous teacher misconduct investigations and administering professional conduct panel hearings and meetings. The Agency upholds the public interest by publishing the outcomes of these hearings and meetings where findings of unacceptable professional conduct and/or conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute, or relevant conviction have been made • supporting schools with their safeguar ding responsibilities – as outlined in the Keeping children safe in education guidance 5 • maintaining the central r ecord of qualified teachers • maintaining the list of pr ohibited teachers • r ecording where teachers who successfully complete initial teacher training (ITT) gain QTS, and where individuals who complete early years ITT gain EYTS • assessing applications r eceived from teachers trained outside of England for recognition of professional status fairly These activities maintain the high-quality standards of the profession, allowing every child access to high-quality education, which are the Agency’s overarching goals and objectives. 11 Teaching Regulation Agency Annual Report and Accounts 2024-25 | 5 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/keeping-children-safe-in-education--2Structure of the Agency Marc Cavey Chief Executive Officer David Oatley Head of Teacher Qualification Unit (TQU) Sarah Buxcey Head of Teacher Misconduct Unit (TMU) Teacher Misconduct Casework Hearings Delivery and Stakeholder Engagement Contracts, Performance, Quality a