Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, how many interim executive board applications she received in each of the last five years; how many of those applications were approved; and how many schools subject to an interim executive board subsequently became an academy or are in the process of becoming one.

The Department for Education does not maintain a record of all applications from local authorities to install Interim Executive Boards (IEBs). Our records show that in the last five years the Secretary of State has approved 325 local authority IEBs. Of these 127 have subsequently opened as academies and a further 36 have been approved to open as academies.

The total number of approved local authority IEBs can be broken down across academic years as follows:

In academic year 10-11, 32 were approved.

In academic year 11-12, 62 were approved.

In academic year 12-13, 88 were approved.

In academic year 13-14, 108 were approved.

In the current academic year, 35 have been approved.

The Education and Inspections Act 2006 enables local authorities to apply to the Secretary of State for consent to constitute the governing body as an IEB. An IEB can be used to accelerate improvement in standards and attainment and provide challenge to the leadership of the school to secure rapid improvement. IEBs can also be used where there has been a serious breakdown of working relationships within the governing body of the school.