Rt Hon Michael Gove MP

Secretary of State
sanctuary Buildings Great Smith Street Westminst er London SWlP 3BT tel: 0370 000 2288 www.education.gov.uk/help/contactus

Christopher Graham Information Commissioner Information Commissioner's Office Wycliffe House Water Lane Wilmslow Cheshire SK9 5AF Dear Mr Graham,

19 February 2013

The Department for Education has been ordered to release a range of information about Free School applications. My Department will, of course, comply with that order. But, in doing so, I want to explain my own posi~ion and put this into the context of my mission to improve education. The Free Schools programme was designed to allow citizens the opportunity to open great new schools outside of bureaucratic control. Since the programme started, over 1000 groups have submitted an application. We have helped channel the passion and commitment of dedicated people who want something better for their children and their community. Free Schools are proving extremely popular with parents -the majority of schools which opened in September 2011 are either full or even oversubscribed. But there are people who are ideologically opposed to the Free Schools programme and some of the opposition to the programme has gone further than normal healthy debate. We are aware of personal attacks on individuals who simply want to improve educational standards and choice locally. Organisations opposed to Free Schools have run hostile publicity campaigns. In some cases these have become highly personal, vilifying individuals involved in opening a Free School. We have been told of instances where teachers have lost their jobs simply by virtue of their association with a Free School application. One proposer has even told us that they have been the subject of a death threat. lt is because we wanted to protect public-spirited volunteers from intimidation that we fought against the ruling and appealed it all the way through to the Tribunal. And it is for these reasons that we must be very careful when it comes to the information we publish about the programme. We want to make sure that people are free to open Free Schools without fear of reprisal or backlash, and parents are free to choose the education they want for their children, whether in a Free School or any

other establishment, without intimidation. I would defend, to the death, the right of anyone to oppose Government policy. I do not believe however that it is right to facilitate the targeted intimidation of brave people acting on noble motives.

MICHAEL GOVE