Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, pursuant to the Answer of 29 June 2016 to Question 40823, how many applications to expand a multi academy trust were refused in each year since 2010.

Multi-Academy Trusts (MATs) do not formally apply to their Regional Schools Commissioner (RSC) for approval to expand. Rather, it is the individual academy or free school seeking to join the MAT that applies to the RSC. These decisions are made on a school-by-school basis. As at 23 June 2016, 66% of all open academies and free schools are part of a MAT. In the 2015/16 academic year to date, over 90% of new academies opened as part of a MAT.

Whilst the department does not record the number of rejected applications from schools seeking to convert to academy status and join a MAT, the Department does publish details of all academy and free schools that are in the pipeline. This data is published on GOV.UK at: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/open-academies-and-academy-projects-in-development and https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/free-schools-open-schools-and-successful-applications

We also publish a note of headteacher board meetings, which include RSC’s decisions on individual projects, stating whether they were approved, deferred or declined, which can be found at: https://www.gov.uk/government/organisations/schools-commissioners-group/about