A GOVERNMENT minister has acknowledged there were "unacceptable delays" in dealing with complaints about an Ofsted report on a North-East school.

Education Minister Stephen Timms said procedures had been changed after a 13-month delay in dealing with complaints from Belmont Primary School, in Guisborough, east Cleveland, following an report which branded the school as having serious weaknesses.

Mr Timms said such a judgement was not taken lightly.

But he said: "Mistakes were made in this case; apologies have been offered, procedures re-examined and improved in the light of the case," he told the Commons.

A recent monitoring report had shown Belmont school was now making good progress in addressing its problems.

Ashok Kumar, Labour MP for Middlesbrough South and East Cleveland, used a short debate on Monday to tell MPs that teachers and parents felt the original Ofsted report on Belmont had been unfair.

Mr Kumar said: "The school community were unhappy. They recognised there was room for improvement and that no one was perfect, but they were concerned that the report was in their view biased and concentrated on the negatives."

Mr Timms said he had instructed the Chief Inspector of Schools to write to the MP.