Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what proportion of expressions of interest in the new capital funding scheme for voluntary-aided schools were for schools with a religious character; and what is the number of those expressions of interest broken down by faith group.

The capital scheme for voluntary-aided schools is designed to be small. Registering an 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, 19 of which we have the details of the proposed religious character. We received expressions of interest by faith group as follows: