To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what powers are available to (a) his Department and (b) local authorities to deal with underperforming academies; and if he will make a statement. (163564)

A range of possible measures available to the Department to deal with underperforming academies, similar to the range of interventions are available for dealing with other underperforming state-funded schools. These range from providing support through School Improvement Partners and Educational Advisers to powers vested in the Secretary of State, which include the power to close an academy in the unlikely event that other interventions have not worked.

Academies are independent schools, and local authorities have no powers of intervention relating to an Academy’s performance. However, each academy has at least one local authority representative on its governing body.

To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families what comparative assessment he has made of the comparative effectiveness of academies and fresh start schools in improving academic comparative performance. (166107)

The February 2007 National Audit Office report on the academies programme found that for three main measures of GCSE performance in 2006, academy pupils gained on average better results than fresh start schools. The percentage of pupils in academies with five or more grades A*-C was 40 per cent. in comparison to 35 per cent. in fresh start schools; the percentage in academies with five or more grades A*-G was 80 per cent. in comparison to 79 per cent., and the percentage with five or more grades A*-C including English and maths was 22 per cent. in comparison to 17 per cent. in fresh start schools.