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The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what advice or guidance, if any, they propose to provide to schools, in particular to religiously selective schools, regarding compliance with the School Admissions Code, in the light of the findings of the report An Unholy Mess, published by the Fair Admissions Campaign and the British Humanist Association last year, that a significant number of schools are failing to comply with the Code in various ways.

Lord Nash

The Government will shortly consult on a package of changes to the School Admissions Code which will both respond to concerns from parents and to the findings in the Chief Adjudicator’s Annual Report. That package will include measures to improve fairness and transparency.

Admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, are required to comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code and other admissions law.

When constructing faith-based oversubscription criteria, including deciding how membership or practice of the faith will be determined, admission authorities must have regard to the guidance of their relevant religious authority, and their arrangements must comply with the statutory School Admissions Code. They must consult with their religious authority when proposing any changes to their admission arrangements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they propose to take, if any, to reduce the complexity of the admission arrangements employed by religiously selective schools, as highlighted in the report An Unholy Mess published by the Fair Admissions Campaign and the British Humanist Association last year, and the 2014–15 annual report of the Chief Schools Adjudicator, so that all parents are better able to understand what is required to gain admission to their local school.

Lord Nash

The Government will shortly consult on a package of changes to the School Admissions Code which will both respond to concerns from parents and to the findings in the Chief Adjudicator’s Annual Report. That package will include measures to improve fairness and transparency.

Admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, are required to comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code and other admissions law.

When constructing faith-based oversubscription criteria, including deciding how membership or practice of the faith will be determined, admission authorities must have regard to the guidance of their relevant religious authority, and their arrangements must comply with the statutory School Admissions Code. They must consult with their religious authority when proposing any changes to their admission arrangements.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what consideration they have given to the comment made in the 2014–15 annual report of the Chief Schools Adjudicator, that the complex [admissions] arrangements of some schools do not serve local children well”.”

Lord Nash

I refer the Baroness Lister to the answer to parliamentary question HL5707 submitted to parliament on 12 February 2016.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the degree to which religious selection in schools leads to intakes that are socio-economically unrepresentative of their local area, and of the effect of the complexity of admission arrangements employed by religiously selective schools on the representativeness of such intakes.

Lord Nash

It is for admission authorities for all state-funded schools, including schools with a religious designation, to set and determine admission arrangements that comply with the mandatory provisions of the School Admissions Code and other admissions law. The code requires that all admissions arrangements must be fair and do not discriminate against pupils based on their social background, ethnicity or disability.

The Schools Adjudicator investigates any objections raised in relation to schools’ admissions arrangements. Where an objection and the arrangements are found to be unfair or fail to comply with the code, the admission authority must make changes to ensure their arrangements are compliant within two months. Where an admission authority fails to implement decisions of the adjudicator, the Secretary of State may direct the admission authority to do so.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps the Department for Education has taken to ensure that schools whose admission arrangements were objected to by the Fair Admissions Campaign in 2014 and 2015 have changed their arrangements in line with any determinations of the Office of the Schools Adjudicator.

Lord Nash

A decision made by the School’s Adjudicator is binding and enforceable. Where the Adjudicator upholds an objection about a school’s admission arrangements, the statutory School Admissions Code requires the school’s admission authority to revise their admission arrangements to give effect to the Adjudicator’s decision within two months of that decision, or by 28 February following the decision, whichever is the sooner. Should an admission authority fail to comply with this requirement, the Secretary of State is able to take action to require them to comply.

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Baroness Lister of Burtersett on 2016-02-09.

To ask Her Majesty’s Government, in the light of the report by the Fair Admissions Campaign and British Humanist Association last year claiming widespread breaches of the School Admissions Code among religiously selective schools, what assessment they have made of the impact on the number of breaches of the School Admissions Code of preventing groups and organisations from submitting objections to school admission arrangements.

Lord Nash

I refer the Baroness Lister to the answer to HL5704, which was submitted to Parliament on 12 February 2016.