In the new century people are all aware of the centrality of school systems to the future well-being of their societies as well as their economies. The shared moral purpose of almost every educator is to improve outcomes for all students and simultaneously promote equity. This is the ethical context for the author's discussion of accountability and inspection. Since the mid-1980s the development and implementation of strong accountability systems has been one of the most powerful, perhaps the most powerful, trend in education policy in the UK, USA and many other countries including Holland, Australia, Canada, Sweden and Russia. The author's central point is that a system of strong external accountability, correctly designed, can make a decisive contribution to the achievement of that widely shared moral purpose. His argument is presented in five sections: (1) The Virtue of Accountability; (2) Accountability and System Redesign; (3) Accountability and the Case for Inspection; (4) Inspection Now and in the Future; and (5) Incentives, Leadership and Informed Professionalism.