A school inspector accused of ‘inappropriate copying and pasting’ in his reports has been dropped by Ofsted.

David Marshall produced identical or near-identical sections in his assessments of schools over three years while working as a lead inspector for Tribal, a private contractor used by the education watchdog.

Examples revealed following an investigation by education newspaper Academies Week, showed word-for-word sections in reports on three schools in Sussex.

St Peter’s C of E Primary School in Ardingly, St Philip’s Catholic School in Arundel and Alfriston School in Alfriston all had identical reports about the performance of their maths department published within months of each other in 2012.

The reports remain the most recent reports for all three schools.

Another three schools elsewhere in the south east inspected between 2012 and 2014 had almost identical wording about the support given to new pupils.

Ofsted said it would no longer work with Mr Marshall, who has also been suspended by Tribal, following the report.

As a senior inspector, Mr Marshall conducted around 60 school assessments over the past three years in the South-East and South-West.

Ofsted’s chief operating officer Matthew Coffey said concerns were raised with Tribal over the similarities in some of Mr Marshall’s reports in 2012.

Tribal reviewed his work and insisted it was accurate but Ofsted has now said it will not work with Mr Marshall ‘as a result of the new evidence brought to our attention’.

Mr Coffey added: ‘The professionalism of our workforce and accuracy and quality of all Ofsted inspection reports is our highest priority.

“Ofsted takes very seriously any allegations of plagiarism or inappropriate copying and pasting in reports.”