Oral Answers to Questions

Nigel Evans Excerpts

Monday 27th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gibb]

The hon. Lady raised her opposition to the establishment of the Chapeltown academy in an Adjournment debate in April, when she said that

“there is no evidence whatsoever that there is demand for these additional sixth-form places.”—[Official Report, 30 April 2014; Vol. 579, c. 964.]

In fact, 58 places have been taken up. Free schools often have smaller numbers in the first year than their maximum, but numbers tend to increase in the years ahead. To quote its website, the school wants to

“Increase aspirations to attend the world’s best universities, and boost attainment at A-Level”.

Why can the hon. Lady not support such a school, with such great ambitions for young people?

[Mr Nigel Evans (Ribble Valley) (Con)]

18. What steps she is taking to ensure that parents wishing to send their children to faith schools can do so.

[The Secretary of State for Education (Nicky Morgan)]

Faith schools play an important role in our education system and I firmly support them. All parents can express a preference for a place at any state-funded school, including faith schools, with a minimum of three preferences in rank order. Where a school receives more applications than it has places available, those places must be allocated in accordance with its published admission arrangements. In 2014, 86.5% of parents secured a place at their first-preference school.

[Mr Evans]

I welcome that response, but parents with youngsters who happen to live in Clitheroe and want to send them to a Catholic school have to pass a non-faith-based comprehensive on the way. Therefore, the local authority will not give them any assistance whatever with school transport. This is a hideous form of discrimination that ends up giving parents a huge bill at the end of the year, particularly those with two or three youngsters. What can be done to make the choice more effective without clobbering parents?

[Nicky Morgan]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question and I understand the points he has made. Although local authorities must have regard to parents’ wishes to have their children educated in a school based on religion or belief, there is no statutory duty to require them to provide free transport to that school; rather, they must provide free transport for pupils to attend the nearest suitable school beyond the statutory walking distance. “Suitable” in this context means providing education appropriate to age and, where relevant, any special educational needs a child may have. I understand the frustrations of many parents and will perhaps look at this again.