Britain’s biggest training provider successfully applied for a superinjunction that stopped official inspectors from passing on a critical report to the government, it has emerged.



It allowed Learndirect, which is mostly funded by the Department for Education, to suppress a damning assessment of its training for four months, Ofsted’s chief inspector, Amanda Spielman, told the House of Commons public accounts committee.

The disclosure followed a National Audit Office report that concluded Learndirect was given special treatment by officials allowing it to retain its contracts for almost a year after a critical Ofsted report – far longer than the usual three-month termination period.

It comes as ministers have been left scrambling to explain how Carillion, the collapsed outsourcing firm, was allowed to continue applying for public money despite multiple warnings.

The existence of the superinjunction was disclosed by Spielman in testimony described as “staggering” by the committee chair, Meg Hillier.

Spielman said Learndirect’s managers tried to obstruct the work of Ofsted inspectors last March and applied to the high court for a judicial review following a grade 4 inspection.

“An application was made for an injunction before the election period was up and the court, somewhat bizarrely and without reference to us, granted a superinjunction which made it impossible for any discussion whatever to happen even between us and the Education and Skills Funding Agency (Esfa).

Spielman added: “Why it was granted was baffling. From that application, which was made before the election, through until the judgment was handed down, no part of government could talk to the other part of government about the situation, nor would they have been able to discuss with third parties the handling, because it was not possible to discuss this pending judgment.”

Andy Palmer, Learndirect’s chief executive, said he was unaware that such an injunction would stop Ofsted from speaking with the Esfa and did not agree that he had wasted money that had come from the taxpayer.

“What we asked for was that the report was not published. I don’t recall asking for such an injunction so as such the departments couldn’t talk to each other about the case,” he said. “I think this was justified because any publication of the report would damage the company.”

Asked if he was stalling for time while being paid public money for contracts, Palmer said the report was an unfair reflection on the quality of training.

Hiller cast doubt upon Palmer’s explanation: “You stalled the publication of the Ofsted report, which kept you ticking along, which kept public money coming in to your coffers.

“The general election then happened which kicked it into the next funding round. It is not believable that you did this because you were miffed about the report. It seems that you delayed it and then tried to delay it again through judicial means,” she said.

Learndirect, which is owned by LDC, the private equity arm of Lloyds Banking Group, has received more than £600m in public funding since being privatised in 2011, according to the thinktank the Institute for Public Policy Research.