HC Deb 16 November 1989 vol 160 c381W
Dr. Thomas

To ask the Secretary of State for Education and Science how many ballots in United Kingdom secondary schools on change of status to date have excluded parents of first-year pupils from voting.

Mrs. Rumbold

Ballots on grant-maintained status for schools in England and Wales are governed by section 61 of the Education Reform Act 1988. This provides that all parents who are known to the governing body as parents of registered pupils at the school, and were named as parents of such pupils on the school register 14 days after the date when ballot was called (by the presentation of a parental petition or resolution of the governing body) are entitled to vote. This would normally include all parents of registered pupils at the school, including the parents of first-year pupils, at the time that the ballot was called. Rarely, where a ballot is called near the end of an academic year but is not held until the following year, this may differ from the register of parents at the school when the ballot is held.