Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Michael Gove and Jim Dobbin(12 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Jim Dobbin (Heywood and Middleton) (Lab/Co-op)
T10. It is important, when individuals and groups apply to open a free school, that proper checks on them are made. Can the Secretary of State give me guarantees that those checks are in place?
Michael Gove
The hon. Gentleman makes a good point. One of the things that we have done in the Department is to set up a specific unit—the preventing extremism unit—which exists specifically to ensure that those people who may come from a fundamentalist religious background or from an intolerant tradition are prevented from having access to public money. Whether they are intending to set up a free school or to subvert the operation of an existing school, safeguards are in place. They can always be better, and I look forward to working with the hon. Gentleman and everyone else in order to ensure that public money does not go into the wrong hands.