Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what discussions they had with Peterborough Council prior to that authority's decision to plan to open the first fully religiously selective Government-funded faith school since 2010.

It has always been possible to establish new schools that can prioritise up to 100% of admissions on the basis of faith criteria and a number of these have opened since 2010. It is for a schools admissions authority to decide whether they will use faith-based admissions criteria or not.

Regarding Peterborough City Council’s decision to approve the proposals for a new Catholic voluntary aided school on 6 January 2020, we gave approval in principle in June 2019 to provide funding to the Roman Catholic Diocese of East Anglia (RCDEA) for a new Catholic primary school. The department publishes guidance on how to take these decisions in the opening and closing maintained schools guidance. Local authorities are best placed to decide whether a proposed school meets the needs of its local community.

Guidance is attached and available from: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/school-organisation-maintained-schools.