OFSTED stands for the Office for Standards in Education and was established in 1992 (under John Major's government) although in many ways adds to the developments of the earlier Education Reform Act of 1988 in that (among other functions) gave more information to parents to help them make choices in the parentocracy of an increasingly marketised education system. The regulatory body replaced local inspectors with a standardised national body. They visit schools (and colleges and nurseries) regularly and produce reports on whether they are meeting nationally-agreed standards for the quality of education provision.