Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, if he will make it his policy to remove the 50 per cent cap on faith-based admissions to religious schools.

The Government strongly supports schools with a religious character and recognises that they are often high performing and popular with parents.

We are pleased that the Voluntary-Aided scheme has allowed the creation of new Catholic and Church of England schools, but we recognise that some groups, including the Catholic Church, feel unable to participate in the free schools programme because of the 50% cap on faith admissions.

We will continue to keep the 50% cap under review and are open to discussing this issue with groups who provide schools with a religious character, including the Catholic Church.