To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families pursuant to his answer of 2 August 2007 to question 152922, on City Academies, when officials from his Department first discussed with Essex local education authority the possibility of establishing city academies in (a) Essex and (b) Colchester. (155301)

Officials first met with officers from Essex county council on 18 March 2005 to discuss the vision of establishing an academy within Essex. The first meeting to discuss an academy in Colchester was on 5 January 2007.