Secularist campaign groups are to be prevented from making "vexatious" complaints against faith schools about their admissions, the Department for Education announced today.
Education Secretary Nicky Morgan said the government is taking further steps to simplify the school admission system. She said the government aims to unclog the admissions system "by stopping objections to a school or local authority's admissions arrangements from outside the local area."
This means only local parents will have a say on admissions to their local schools, and will help local authorities to ensure they are fair. It will also "stop vexatious complaints against faith schools from secularist campaign groups," the department said.
Morgan added: "As part of our mission to deliver educational excellence everywhere, we want every child to have the opportunity to go to a good local school by making it easier for parents to have a say in their local school's admission process.
"So that parents can be confident that the school admission process is working for them, we are ensuring only local parents and councils can object to admission arrangements, which will also put a stop to vexatious complaints against faith schools by secularist campaign groups."
Despite rising pupil numbers, 95 per cent of parents received an offer at one of their top three preferred schools last year.
The government is committed to following through on the Conservative manifesto commitment to create 500 new free schools, which will also broaden the choice available to local parents.
The department noted that secular campaign groups have targeted faith school admissions as part of "a particular agenda". The aim is "to put a stop to this" by restricting who can object to school admissions arrangements to local parents and the local authority.
The new rules comes after a report published by the British Humanist Association and Fair Admissions Campaign last year claimed that almost every religiously-selective school in England is breaking the law.
The BHA described the new rules as an "affront to both democracy and the rule of law", and claimed they will allow religiously-selective schools to continue abusing the system and unfairly discriminate against a huge number of children in the process.
Under current rules, anyone can lodge an objection with the Office of theSchools Adjudicator if they believe a school has failed to comply with the School Admissions Code.
Andrew Copson of the BHA said: "We all need to be clear about what is happening here. A near-universal failure to adhere to the law in a particular area has been identified. Instead of moving to enforce the law, the Government has responded by planning to make it harder to identify future violations of it. This is an affront to both democracy and the rule of law."
Paul Barber, director of the Catholic Education Service, welcomed the the government's recommendations, saying it would reduce the "unnecessary burden on teachers' workloads". He previously said the use of school admissions appeals by campaigners was unfair and meant the time of school staff was taken away from supporting pupils to respond to "vexatious complaints which serve only to fulfil the campaigning purpose of one organisation".
