Ofsted receives hundreds of reports of peer-on-peer sexual abuse in schools every year, but cannot say how many have prompted inspections.
A Schools Week investigation also found the Department for Education does not collect data on the number of reports it receives, which campaigners say could result in cases slipping through the net.
The government says abuse should be reported to schools and then referred to the police. But victims and their families can also report issues to sector organisations such as Ofsted and the DfE.
Freedom of information data shows Ofsted received 1,582 reports of sexual abuse in schools between 2016 and 2021. But when asked how many had sparked inspections, Ofsted said such data was not centrally held.
The watchdog has been repeatedly criticised over its handling of sexual abuse.
The recent Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse found Ofsted “did not do enough” to identify serious child protection weaknesses in some schools. Inspectors even gave clean bills of health to settings in which children were being sexually abused, it found.
