Defending teachers before the Teaching Regulation Agency
A referral to the Teaching Regulation Agency is not a workplace disciplinary matter that will blow over. The TRA has one order available to it, and that order is a ban on teaching.
That single fact shapes everything about how these cases should be defended, and it is the thing most teachers do not understand when they first receive the letter.
Why we are different: we have worked inside the regulators
Most defence firms have only ever seen a regulatory case from one side.
Our regulatory work is led by lawyers who have worked inside the regulators themselves — as Head of Legal & Enforcement at the Solicitors Regulation Authority, a Senior Lawyer at the General Dental Council and a Legal Adviser at the General Medical Council. They have led enforcement teams, personally conducted the most serious and complex cases, and acted as an authorised decision maker on regulatory decisions and on referrals to a professional tribunal.
Different regulator, same architecture. The TRA runs the process every professional regulator runs: a referral, a threshold assessment, an investigation, a decision on whether there is a case to answer, a panel, and a sanction. Knowing how a regulator builds and assesses a case — what it treats as an aggravating feature, where a case officer has discretion, what makes a file attractive or unattractive to take to a panel — is a practical advantage whichever body is on the other side.
It is most valuable at exactly the point where teachers are least often advised: the written response at the investigation stage, before anyone has decided whether there is a case to answer.
What the TRA can and cannot look at
The statutory grounds under section 141B of the Education Act 2002 are that a person may be guilty of unacceptable professional conduct, or conduct that may bring the teaching profession into disrepute, or may have been convicted (at any time) of a relevant offence.
- Unacceptable professional conduct — misconduct of a serious nature, falling significantly short of the standard of behaviour expected of a teacher. Conduct outside school only qualifies if it affects how you do your job, or may expose or influence pupils harmfully.
- Conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute — conduct that could damage public perception of a teacher.
- A relevant offence — a conviction relevant to your fitness to be a teacher. Conditional and absolute discharges are not treated as relevant convictions.
What the TRA cannot deal with at all: less serious misconduct, incompetence and underperformance. Those are matters for your employer. A referral that is really a capability complaint dressed up as misconduct is a referral worth challenging at the outset.
Who is covered
The regime bites on the function you perform, not the qualification you hold. Qualified teacher status is not required. Unqualified teachers, supply teachers and higher-level teaching assistants doing unsupervised teaching work can all be in scope, as can staff at independent schools.
Coverage extends to teaching work at schools, sixth form colleges, 16 to 19 Academies, children's homes and relevant youth accommodation in England.
If you teach in further education, at an independent training provider, or for an online provider, you are not currently within the TRA's jurisdiction. Section 52 of the Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026 will extend the regime to those settings, and will remove the limit on when the conduct occurred. That section received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026 but is not yet in force; the TRA anticipates implementation from Autumn 2027.
How a tra case runs
1. Referral
Referrals come from employers, the police, the DBS, other regulators and members of the public. Anonymous referrals are not accepted.
The point most teachers miss: resigning does not stop a referral. An employer must consider referring where a teacher has been dismissed for serious misconduct, or would have been dismissed had they not resigned first. A negotiated exit, a settlement agreement or an agreed reference does not close this down.
2. Investigation
The TRA writes to you setting out the allegation and inviting written representations, normally within 28 days. It then decides whether there is a case to answer.
This is the stage that matters most and the stage at which teachers are most often unrepresented. In 2025–26 the TRA opened 805 investigations and closed 576 cases with no further action. A large proportion of cases end here — and what you write is a substantial part of the reason they do, or do not.
3. Interim prohibition orders
An interim prohibition order stops you teaching while the case is investigated. It can be made without a hearing, and quickly: the TRA decides whether to consider one within three working days of the referral, you get 10 working days to make representations, and a decision follows within five working days.
You can request a review after six months, and at six-monthly intervals after that. An IPO is not a finding against you, and 156 were made in 2025–26.
4. The professional conduct panel
At least three panellists, including at least one teacher and at least one lay member, advised by an independent legal adviser who does not take part in the decision. The TRA's case is put by a presenting officer.
- Hearings are normally in public, and forthcoming hearings are listed on GOV.UK in advance. The panel can sit in private in the interests of justice, at your request, or to protect children or vulnerable witnesses — but it still announces its findings of fact in public.
- The burden is on the TRA, and the standard is the balance of probabilities.
- You may be represented by a lawyer of your choice.
- There is no power to order costs against you — each side bears its own.
- Where allegations involve sexual conduct, or the witness is a child, you cannot personally cross-examine that witness; only your representative can.
Notice of hearing must be served at least ten weeks beforehand, and you have four weeks from service to respond.
5. The decision
The panel recommends; a senior TRA official takes the decision on behalf of the Secretary of State. The decision, the reasons and a summary of the evidence are published on GOV.UK within two weeks.
Prohibition orders, review periods, and the cases with no way back
A prohibition order is indefinite. It does not expire. It ends only if it is set aside or successfully appealed.
Most orders allow you to apply to have them set aside after a minimum period, which cannot be less than two years from the date the order takes effect. Longer periods are likely where the case involves violence, arson, drug supply, serious dishonesty, or conduct motivated by hatred based on a protected characteristic.
Some orders are made with no review period at all — a permanent bar you can never apply to lift. The published guidance says that should happen where the case involves serious sexual misconduct exploiting the professional position, any sexual misconduct involving children, indecent images of children, child cruelty or neglect, or terrorism.
The difference between a two-year review period and no review period is the difference between a career interrupted and a career ended. It is decided at the sanction stage of the hearing, on evidence — and that evidence takes months to assemble properly.
Applying to set aside
You apply in writing after the minimum period, with your full employment history since prohibition, named referees, training evidence and a statement. The onus is on you to satisfy a panel that you are suitable to teach again. If refused, you cannot apply again for 12 months. In 2025–26 there were 12 set-aside hearings and 10 were granted.
Appealing a prohibition order
An appeal lies to the King's Bench Division of the High Court under regulation 17 of the Teachers' Disciplinary (England) Regulations 2012, and must be brought within 28 days of the date notice of the order was served on you.
Three things about that deadline catch people out:
- It runs from service of the notice — not from the hearing, not from the panel's decision, not from publication.
- There is no internal appeal. You cannot appeal to the TRA or to the Department for Education.
- It is 28 days, not 28 working days.
What the High Court will actually do. Following Daniah v Secretary of State for Education [2025] EWHC 2810 (Admin), an appeal is a review, not a rehearing. The court gives substantial deference to the panel, will not disturb findings of fact unless they were perverse, will not reopen a criminal conviction, and gives considerable weight to the Secretary of State on proportionality. Appeals succeed on legal error, procedural unfairness or irrationality — not on a different view of the evidence.
There is no statutory appeal against an interim prohibition order; the routes are the six-monthly review and, exceptionally, judicial review.
The other processes running alongside
Your employer's disciplinary process is separate and parallel. Nothing requires it to finish before a referral is made, and winning an unfair dismissal claim does not end a TRA case — the tests and the standard are different.
The DBS is a separate regime with a different effect. A TRA prohibition stops you doing teaching work in specified settings in England. A DBS bar stops you doing regulated activity with children anywhere in the UK. Both referrals may be required in the same case, and neither outcome binds the other. Where safeguarding is alleged, the TRA forwards relevant information to the DBS. See our page on DBS barring.
A police investigation does not automatically pause the TRA case. There is no automatic stay — a panel can be asked to order one, but it is discretionary and must be applied for. And an acquittal does not end the TRA case, because the TRA applies the balance of probabilities. See our page on criminal defence.
If you teach in Wales, Scotland or Northern Ireland
The TRA covers England only.
| Nation | Regulator | Sanctions available |
|---|---|---|
| England | Teaching Regulation Agency | Prohibition order only |
| Wales | Education Workforce Council | Reprimand, conditional registration, suspension up to 2 years, prohibition |
| Scotland | General Teaching Council for Scotland | Reprimand, conditional registration, removal from the register |
| Northern Ireland | General Teaching Council for NI | Removal from the register |
Wales and Scotland have the graduated sanctions that England lacks, which changes the defence strategy considerably.
Speak to us before you reply to the TRA
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Related: regulatory defence solicitors · DBS barring · criminal defence
Frequently asked questions
About Regulation Resolution Solicitors
Regulation Resolution Solicitors is a specialist regulatory defence practice. We act for regulated professionals facing investigation, disciplinary proceedings and fitness to practise allegations before their regulators and professional tribunals.
Regulatory defence is the whole of what we do, not a sideline to a general practice. Our lawyers have worked inside the regulators themselves, and we apply that understanding of how cases are built, assessed and decided from the first written response onwards — the stage at which regulatory cases are most often won or lost, long before any hearing.
Written by Regulation Resolution Solicitors. Last reviewed: 11th September 2026
This page is general information about the position in England, not legal advice on your situation.
