Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what actions she will take to improve the quality of education provision by free schools in the South West.

The Government is committed to achieving educational excellence everywhere so that children in every part of the country, regardless of their background and circumstances, have access to an outstanding education.

Free schools benefit from the ability to act quickly to improve standards. The Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC) for the South West is responsible for taking action to improve underperforming free schools in the region. Where a free school is identified by Ofsted as under-performing the RSC takes swift action, working with the school to develop robust plans for improvement including, for example, appointing strong new sponsors to run the school.