House of Lords Debates Faith School Quotas

Peers in the House of Lords will debate whether new faith schools in England should be required to fill one quarter of their places with pupils from other religions.

|PIC1|It follows the decision last week by Education Secretary Alan Johnson to scrap the quota - a decision Lord Baker told BBC Radio 4's World at One programme was the "fastest U-turn in British political history".

Lord Baker earlier tabled an amendment to the Education and Inspections Bill which called for a quota but dropped it when the government promised to introduce a similar measure.

Last week, however, Mr Johnson U-turned on those proposals saying he had reached a "voluntary agreement" with Catholic leaders to "ensure" new faith schools would take up to a quarter of their pupils from other religious backgrounds. The Church of England already announced earlier in the month that it would voluntarily implement a 25 per cent quota.

The ex-Tory education secretary Lord Baker challenged the climb-down, saying the government had "changed track" under pressure from the Catholic Church.

He conceded, however, that it would be "difficult to win" the vote in the House of Lords, while Lord Dubbs said the government's plan was more "workable".

Lord Baker said: "I think it's a very important debate. This is the first time since the Butler Act of 1944 we've had the chance to really discuss the impact of modern faiths on our country.