§ Mr. ByersTo ask the Secretary of State for Education how many approaches his Department's territorial teams have received from parents who have failed to get their children admitted to the grant-maintained school of their choice; and what plans he has to begin keeping a central record of such approaches.
§ Mr. Robin SquireThe Department does not keep detailed records of different categories of written and telephone inquiries from members of the public. There are no present plans to collect data on the number of approaches made to members of the Department's school territorial teams about the specific issue of admissions to grant-maintained schools. Both the Department and the Office for Standards in Education have however noted that when a school becomes grant-maintained there tends to be an increase in the number of applications for admission.