Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what steps, if any, they will take to prevent new voluntary aided schools with a religious character from immediately converting to academy status to bypass the 50 per cent cap on religiously selective admissions that currently applies to free schools.

Any voluntary-aided schools, including those funded through the recently announced capital scheme, can apply to convert to academy status in the same way as any other maintained school. Whilst we do not plan to put in place specific restrictions on academy conversion for voluntary-aided schools, they will need to obtain the necessary consents, meet our criteria and undertake a consultation before doing so.