To ask the Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families which maintained schools did not give priority to children in care in their 2007-08 admission arrangements; and if he will make a statement. (201111)

We do not collect that data centrally. However, we recently carried out an analysis of the 2008-09 admission arrangements adopted by schools in three local authority areas—Barnet, Manchester and Nottinghamshire—which showed that although a large majority complied with the school admissions code and admissions legislation, a significant minority of schools appeared to have adopted unlawful arrangements.

The Secretary of State made a statement to Parliament on 2 April on measures being taken to improve the admissions system, which also included details about the evidence gathered, which showed that 58 out of 570 schools across the three local authority areas failed to give children in care the unequivocal highest priority in school admission arrangements as required by law. This information is available in the House Library: