Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what recent assessment she has made of the performance of free schools compared with maintained schools and academies in terms of educational outcomes.

Many free schools, run by strong trusts, have contributed to raising standards and achieved strong outcomes for their pupils. However, too many children and young people are still being left behind due to their educational needs or their background.

The department is proceeding with mainstream projects that meet the needs of communities, respond to demographic and housing demand, and raise standards without undermining the viability of existing local schools and colleges. We are backing new schools that offer something unique for students who would otherwise not have access to it. For example, we will open two new maths schools, to give talented students in the North and the Midlands a fairer chance to pursue advanced mathematics.

The department has also announced that we are investing at least £3 billion to create 50,000 new specialist places. To support this investment, we are not proceeding with some mainstream free school projects.