Ofsted has announced plans to halve the number of times it publishes official FE statistics to two a year in response to a month-long consultation. The consultation, which opened on August 11 on the education watchdog’s website, received 22 responses — 73 per cent of which agreed with the proposal to reduce the number of releases to two a year. In its response to the consultation, Ofsted said: “As a result of the responses, we will reduce the frequency of our FE official statistics. “In conjunction with this, we will publish monthly management information that will provide a frequent and timely snapshot of inspection judgements throughout the academic year (September to August) to date.” The last quarterly official statistics were published in December and the first bi-annual report will be released in June, with the next due in December. The monthly management information will include provider-level data on judgements in areas such as apprenticeships and 16 to 19 provision, as well as a breakdown of subject area judgements as well as key findings on the sector as a whole. However, the “snapshot” will not include learner information, performance data and success rates or examples of good practice.