Department for Education
Proposals to create a school system that works for everyone, not just the privileged few, by creating more good school places are currently being consulted on.
The proposals include plans to remove the faith cap on new free schools on the basis that it has not been as effective as hoped in promoting diversity.
Evidence shows that in all new minority faith designated free schools there is a single dominant ethnic group constituting at least 80% of the pupils on average.
This compares to Catholic faith schools where the largest ethnic group is under 75%. It should be noted that no Catholic free schools have been opened since the cap was introduced, with the cap often being cited as a barrier to new Catholic free schools being opened.
After being made aware of concerns raised to the UK Statistics Authority with the wording of the consultation, where this evidence is referred to, we have today made a clarification to the document and added an additional data table, to remove any uncertainty or confusion.
This change has been made as part of the governments commitment to transparency.