Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, on what date it became her Department's policy that free schools should only be (a) university technical colleges and (b) studio schools; for what reason this is her Department's policy; and for what reason local authorities have to be named in a bid to open an academy.

There has been no change to the department’s policy regarding the types of school that can open as part of the free schools programme.

In the most recent application waves, the department approved 15 mainstream free schools, two of which were new universal technical colleges (UTC), 41 special free schools and 20 alternative provision (AP) schools. My right hon. Friend, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, also announced a further wave of 15 special free schools as part of the Spring Budget.

Since the programme started in 2010, the department has opened 701 free schools, made up of 542 mainstream schools, 51 AP schools, 108 special schools (125 of which are local authority presumption free schools and seven of which are specialist maths schools), 44 UTCs and 20 Studio schools. These schools will provide over 405,000 places at capacity, thereby helping to ensure that children and young people have access to a good quality school place in a range of different settings across the country. Overall, since 2010 the department has supported the creation of nearly 1.2 million new school places via various routes including opening new free schools.

Local authorities are often named in an application for a free school as part of the process to identify a site for the proposed school. It can also help the department to understand the local context of the application and whether there is a need for that type of school in the area.