Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how many expressions of interest in the new capital funding scheme for voluntary aided schools were registered; and what proportion of those led to the submission of a full proposal in the first round of that scheme.

The capital scheme for voluntary-aided schools is designed to be small, and registering interest in the scheme prior to submitting a bid for funding was not compulsory.

As well as exploratory discussions with stakeholders, we received expressions of interest for 22 new voluntary-aided schools.

The expressions of interest led to 14 bids for funding submitted to the department. A list of the bids that the department received will be published in due course.