The Society of Authors (SoA), the British Educational Suppliers Association (BESA) and the Publishers Association (PA), co-claimants on the Judicial Review relating to Oak National Academy, have announced this week (5 November 2024) that the proceedings will be put on hold with immediate effect.

The Judicial Review had previously been granted permission to proceed in November 2023, with a substantive hearing due to take place this week.

The co-claimants said:

The parties in the judicial review proceedings relating to Oak National Academy have agreed to a stay of the proceedings. This means that there will not be a substantive hearing on 5 and 6 November and that the litigation has been put on hold with immediate effect.

We will continue discussions with the Department for Education in the hope that these will result in a satisfactory outcome for all concerned and remove the need for further litigation.

The Judicial Review was granted after growing concerns among authors, teachers, unions, publishers, tech innovators, and other educational suppliers about the plans to convert Oak National Academy into an arm’s length body of the government.

The Oak National Academy, an online teaching platform, was created in April 2020 as an emergency response to the coronavirus pandemic. At the time, it provided an invaluable service for students and teachers in a moment of unprecedented difficulty.

The plans to convert the platform into a permanent arm’s length body of the government generated issues among trade bodies who feared it was ‘a very damaging act in the medium and long-term for authors and the provision of education in this country’.