Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have to draw up a central record containing a list of governors of all state-funded schools.

We have plans to provide for full transparency of governor appointments to state funded schools in a number of ways, as follows.

The Governors’ Handbook already advises schools to publish the names of their governors on their websites. We consulted recently on amending the statutory guidance to maintained schools to make this a statutory requirement. The consultation closed on 19 February and responses are currently being considered. The consultation also sought views on a proposal to require maintained schools to publish the register of governors’ relevant business interests; this should also include details of any other governing body that an individual serves on. We made clear in the Schools Causing Concern guidance published on 20 January 2015 that local authorities should have arrangements in place for maintaining records of governors in maintained schools. This means that all local authorities should have full transparency of the governors in the schools they maintain.

Academies are already required to publish information about governors. The Academies Financial Handbook requires academies to publish details of their trustees, including their register of interests. Trusts are also required to notify the Secretary of State when there are changes to key post holders, including the Chair of Trustees. The Education Funding Agency is investigating the feasibility of holding information on members and trustees in a single database.