Written question asked by Louise Ellman (Labour) on Thursday, 16 February 2006, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 27 February 2006. It was answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern (Labour) on Monday, 27 February 2006 on behalf of the Department for Education and Skills.

School Commissioning

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Skills if she will name the new schools which have been commissioned through the competitive process, broken down by local education authority; and what criteria were used in making the decision whether to use that process.

Answer: There have been no competitions held by local authorities to find alternative providers for new schools. Provisions in the Education Act 2002 and regulations made under that Act prescribe that a local authority may not make its own proposals for additional secondary schools unless it also invites proposals from other interested parties, but under this legislation proposals outside this process are possible from other proposers, and it is open to an authority to support these proposals rather than publish its own.We are currently consulting on regulations under the 2005 Act that extend the competitive process to all new secondary schools, including replacement schools, and prevent the publication of proposals outside this process, by either local authorities or other proposers, unless the Secretary of State gives her consent.The recent Education White Paper envisages extending these arrangements to all maintained schools, including primary schools.

Secondary information