Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 3 March 2017 to Question 64307, on Baverstock Academy, on how many occasions her Department has refused a sponsor because of the risk a school poses to that sponsor.

Although the Department holds detailed information on individual cases we do not record it in a way that allows us to quantify in how many instances a proposal for a sponsor to take on a failing school has not been approved because of the potential risk to the sponsor’s performance and financial health.

Regional Schools Commissioners are responsible for taking decisions on the creation and growth of Multi Academy Trusts. As such, they will take into account a number of factors about the capacity of the sponsor before reaching a decision to allow them to take on a failing school.

More information on this is detailed in the Regional schools commissioners decision-making framework (published April 2016) and in Multi-academy trusts: good practice guidance and expectations of growth (published December 2016), both are on gov.uk.