Oral question asked in the House of Commons, by David Amess (Conservative). It was answered by Lord Coaker (Labour) on Monday, 8 March 2010 on behalf of the Department for Children, Schools and Families.

Academies

Question: What his latest assessment is of progress on the academies programme; and if he will make a statement.

Answer: There are now 203 academies open in 83 local authorities, with up to a further 100 opening in 2010. Evidence from independent reports by PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ofsted and the National Audit Office shows that academies are working. For academies with results in 2008 and 2009, the increase in the proportion of pupils achieving at least five A* GCSEs, including English and maths, is 5 percentage points, an increase on last year's academy improvement rate of 4.3 percentage points.

Secondary information