Peter Marples has lost his High Court case against the Department for Education, with the judge dismissing the claim in its entirety.
The former boss of the apprenticeship training giant 3aaa, and three members of his family, were suing the government for at least £37 million in losses, blaming Department for Education officials for a failed sale of the training provider in 2016.
Marples claimed the then-Skills Funding Agency acted maliciously when it refused to sign off on a change of control of 3aaa in 2016, and argued “misfeasance in a public office” against officials.
But following a three-week trial this summer, the Honourable Justice Eason Rajah sided with the DfE, ending a bitter legal battle that had lasted nearly three years.
In his judgment, published today, Rajah described the case as “flawed”.
The judge rejected allegations that officials at the then-Skills Funding Agency acted unlawfully or in bad faith when they blocked the 2016 sale of the Marples-founded apprenticeship provider 3aaa to private-equity firm Trilantic Europe.
In a detailed 243-paragraph judgment, the judge ruled that the agency owed no duty of care to the family and that its 2016 decision letter was not unlawful or beyond its powers.
Claims of misfeasance in public office were also thrown out after the court found no evidence that former SFA chief Sir Peter Lauener intended to harm the claimants.
In a statement following the judgment, the Marples family said:
“We are naturally extremely disappointed by the judgment released this morning. We have not had the time to fully digest and will be discussing its contents with our legal team in terms of next steps.
“We will be making no further comment at this time other than to note that whilst our claim was dismissed, Mr Justice Rajah did conclude that in respect to the closure of the business in 2018, the secretary of state provided no evidence to support the claims that they made that directly resulted in the closure.
“This underlines the position we have always taken that the closure was baseless.
“Our focus as a family is now on supporting Peter Marples, and each other, who was diagnosed with cancer only two weeks ago. He has already undergone some surgery and is due to undergo more surgery shortly.”
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We welcome the court’s decision and are currently reviewing the judgment in greater detail.”
Both parties have until 4pm on November 7 to come to an agreement on costs. If they do not, the Court makes a ruling at a later date.
Marples also has until 4pm on November 18 to apply for permission to appeal.
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Blame game as lawyers conclude Marples v DfE fight
October 2025
Judgment in favour of DfE
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