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Education and Inspections Bill

The hon. Gentleman makes a valid point, which is why we are not averse to supporting the Bill with those concessions in it. The main purpose of the White Paper is to try to create a greater diversity of schools throughout the country. A total of 63 per cent. of schools are community schools, so we will not create diversity if every new school is yet another community school. With school rolls and population demand falling, the number of new schools is lower than we might otherwise wish. On 20 April, the then Minister for Schools said in Committee that a local authority with an annual performance assessment of 4—the highest level—could propose a community school without consent. There are 11 such authorities. She said, too, that the worst local authorities with an APA of 1 would never be able to propose a new community school. For the remainder, it would depend on the diversity of provision in the area and the quality of the schools that they provide.