Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what guidance her Department provides on the powers (a) she and (b) local education authorities have to remove a school from an academy trust without the agreement of the trust.

The circumstances in which the department can remove a school from an academy trust without the agreement of the trust are set out in published guidance, which is titled ‘Schools causing concern’. In summary, the department can remove a school in circumstances where my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education’s, powers are triggered to terminate its funding agreement. Academies are accountable to the Secretary of State and therefore local authorities have no powers to remove an academy from a trust.