Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of reforming the schools appeals process in line with the temporary changes during the covid-19 outbreak.

Temporary regulations to amend the school admission appeals process were introduced in April 2020 to address the fact that the COVID-19 outbreak meant admission appeals could not go ahead in line with the existing statutory requirements.

Due to the ongoing nature of COVID-19 and the continuation of social distancing rules, we have introduced another set of temporary regulations which will extend the temporary provisions until 30 September 2021.

We will continue to monitor and review the impact of the temporary arrangements and will take account of feedback from local authorites, schools and parents when considering whether there is scope for wider reform of the appeals process in the longer term. Any proposals for permanent changes would require changes to legislation which would include a full public consultation and all changes would be subject to parliamentary approval.