The number of parents lying to win their children school places has risen by more than 10 times in the last five years, a Freedom of Information request has revealed. 

The London Evening Standard report:

There has been a massive rise in the number of parents caught lying to win places at popular schools, new figures reveal.

The number of council investigations launched into suspicious applications has risen 11 fold in five years.

It comes as parents prepare to find out to which school their child has been allocated on Friday — National Offer Day. Nine children apply for every place at the most popular institutions in the capital, including the West London Free School in Hammersmith.

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I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.