Last updated:
30th December 2024
See answers to previous information requests
How to search
- Select a year and/or a month from the drop down list
- Type a subject into the 'Subject keyword(s):' search (Optional)
- Click 'Search' button
Alternatively click 'View' to browse through all received requests.
This search is for our information requests from September 2020 onward.
School admissions fraud
See notes
For each of the last seven academic or financial years (please use whichever period for which the data is held - and including 2024/2025), please provide the following statistics concerning school admissions or applications fraud:
1. The annual number of investigations into school admissions or application fraud broken down by year and a) primary school and b) secondary school
Wokingham Borough Council does not maintain a formal record of the number of school applications identified as potentially fraudulent. The Council's current systems do not allow for the extraction of specific case details, including the nature of the concern, the school involved, or the outcome of any investigation.
2 The annual number such investigations where the fraud was proven, broken down by year
As above, Wokingham Borough Council does not maintain a formal record of proven fraudulent applications, nor does it have the capability to extract specific case details from its systems.
3. Please briefly summarise any common reasons for such a determination e.g. renting out a property in the catchment area but not living there, or registering company accounts at a relative’s house within the catchment area but not living there. For clarification, these do not have to be calculated to definitively be the most common reasons. This news article includes common reasons in Kent: https://www.kentonline.co.uk/dartford/news/we-can-t-stop-every-parent-from-lying-to-get-a-school-place-302632/
Wokingham Borough Council does not maintain a formal record of fraudulent applications or their specific nature.
4. The annual number of places withdrawn because of such fraud, broken down by year
Wokingham Borough Council does not maintain a formal record of school places withdrawn due to fraudulent applications, nor does it have the capability to extract such data from its systems.
5. The total number of investigations into such fraud which have resulted in prosecution over this entire period. Please list any cases which went to court over this period and any resulting charges
None.
