More than 100 failing academies have been removed from their sponsors and placed in new trusts, MPs have heard.
England's schools commissioner Sir David Carter told the Commons Education Committee 119 academies had been "re-brokered" as a last resort.
Some academies were performing no better than the failing schools from which they had taken over, he told MPs.
But he stressed the academies his team were most concerned about were being challenged and supported to improve.
Sir David said of the 973 functioning multi-academy trusts in England, only seven had been inspected by Ofsted as part of a process known as "batched inspections".