Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of whether proposed changes to who can object to school admissions arrangements will have a disproportionate impact on parents from low income backgrounds.

Our proposed changes are intended to ensure that the Adjudicator is able to focus on the concerns parents may have about the fairness of the admission arrangements of their local school. We do not want parents’ objections to be held up by the need to also consider objections referred by interest groups from outside the area.

It will remain open for local authorities to object to the Adjudicator about schools’ admission arrangements as the champion of local parents. Preventing interest groups from submitting objections will not have a detrimental impact on lower income families.

We will conduct a full public consultation in due course and will give careful consideration to all the views expressed in that consultation.