Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to the Answer of 6 May 2014, Official Report, column 63W, on schools: land, whether academy trusts which are granted the use, loan or ownership of publicly-funded school lands are charged for that use.

No one is allowed to charge an academy trust for the use of land that a maintained school can use for free. If maintained schools pay a fee – for example, for use of shared sports facilities – then this arrangement can continue when a school converts to become an academy.

Information about the number of schools, including the number of academies, that pay a fee for use of land or facilities is not held centrally and could be compiled only at disproportionate cost.