The Bishop of East Anglia has raised concerns about the future of the Conservative’s pledge to remove the 50 per cent cap on faith admissions to new free schools.
Bishop Alan Hopes has urged MPs across his diocese who support the proposal to write to the Secretary of State for Education, Justine Greening, calling on her to "stand by this commitment to faith schools."
Bishop Hopes also urged anyone who supports the idea of new Catholic schools across East Anglia to write to their own MP.
The move follows the removal of a number of key Tory manifesto pledges on education from the Queen's Speech last week, which sets out the government's legislative agenda for the next two years.
Plans to create a new wave of grammar schools in England have been dropped. Unlike the grammar schools policy, the removal of the admissions cap does not require primary legislation and so did not have to feature in the Speech. The decision to approve the lifting of the cap now rests with the Education Secretary.
The bishop said the cap, which was a Liberal Democratic policy brought in as part of the coalition agreement with the Conservatives had failed to create religious diversity. "All the cap achieved was to bar the Catholic Church from opening new schools," he added.
Bishop Hopes pointed out that under canon law rules, Catholic schools are not allowed to turn away Catholic pupils on the grounds of their Catholicism.
East Anglia has some of the most severe shortages of places in Catholic schools in the country. Since Prime Minister Theresa May announced her plan to lift the cap, the diocese has “invested a significant amount of its own financial and staff resources” into developing bids for eight new Catholic schools in Norfolk, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.
Helen Bates, assistant director for Schools Commission at the Diocese of East Anglia said the bids, which would provide places for 4,400 pupils from nursery to sixth form, are ready to submit once they get the go-ahead. "There isn't a plan B. If the cap is not removed, we just won't get any more Catholic schools, so it's hugely important," she said.
A spokesman for the Department of Education told the Tablet that it will "continue to work closely with faith schools to promote and support integration."
Asked when there would be a decision on the cap, he added that the department "will set out further details of our response in due course."
PICTURE: Education Secretary Justine Greening
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