Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to his Statement of 9 June 2014, Official Report, column 269, on Birmingham schools, when Ministers of his Department were first made aware of allegations of extremism in schools in Birmingham.

The Department for Education received the ‘Trojan Horse' letter in December 2013. The Secretary of State has asked the Permanent Secretary to investigate how the Department dealt with warnings both since the formation of this Government in 2010 and before.

Since receiving a copy of the Trojan Horse letter, the Department has been working closely with agencies such as Birmingham City Council, the police and Ofsted. Based on the Department's evidence-gathering, the Secretary of State commissioned inspections by Ofsted and appointed Peter Clarke as Education Commissioner.