Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to his Department's press release of 11 March 2019, Thousands of places created in new special free schools, what criteria was used to determine those local authorities selected to receive new special free schools.

On 11 March 2019, my right hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Education, announced the approval of 37 special free schools and 2 alternative provision free schools, providing thousands of new school places for children with special educational needs or those facing additional challenges in mainstream education.

The criteria used to assess local authority bids has now been removed from GOV.UK and is in the process of being uploaded onto the national archives web archives at: www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/webarchive/. A copy has been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.