Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to Guidance and criteria for proposers bidding for capital funding to support the establishment of a new voluntary aided school, published in December 2018, what evidence they had of improving the diversity within the governing body of a school supporting greater inclusion and integration in, and between, communities.

The guidance and criteria for the voluntary-aided capital scheme sets out how new voluntary- aided schools will need to support inclusivity and integration within and between communities and explains that diversity on the governing body is a way for proposers to demonstrate their commitment to this.

The bids received in the first round of the voluntary-aided capital scheme are currently being assessed, and the outcome of that assessment will be announced in due course once the assessment stage is complete.