The General Teaching Council for England has been given an 18-month stay of execution. Schools Minister Nick Gibb has told the council it will not be wound up until March 2012. He has refused to give details on what the GTCE’s successor body will be and if it will have any functions beyond disciplining teachers. The GTCE was originally expected to be scrapped next year, but the complexity of setting up a new body and ending its many functions is understood to be the reason.