Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what data her Department holds on the number of (a) nurseries, (b) primary schools, (c) secondary schools, (d) sixth form colleges and (e) all-through schools that have experienced construction delays that have postponed the planned opening date in each of the last five years.

The Department aims to minimise the time that any free school spends in pre-opening. Officials work closely with schools and trusts to ensure they receive the support they need, as projects progress.

If the Department is not confident that a free school will be viable, sustainable, and successful, it will not hesitate to defer or cancel a project at any point during the pre-opening phase.

The Department monitors opening dates across all free school projects but does not record whether changes to the original expected year of opening are due to site issues or other concerns around viability and readiness to open.