The Rt Hon Alan Johnson MP

Secretary of State for Education and Skills

Department for Education and Skills

Sanctuary Buildings

Great Smith Street

London

SW1P 3BT

26 October 2006

Dear Mr Johnson

Thank you for the time you and your colleagues and officials gave to our meeting yesterday.

I found it helpful and constructive.

My understanding of our discussion was that you were able to assure me that in the development of the amendment you will put forward to the Education and Inspection Bill the following points will be secure:

i)                    That the provisions of the amendment will not be applied to existing Catholic schools and that the amendment will be framed in such a way as to make impossible such an application, through the Admissions Code.

ii)                  That under the terms of the amendment the admissions authority for a Catholic school will remain the Governing Body of that school.

iii)                That in the proposing of a new Catholic school, the amendment will not require that Catholic pupils, for whose need the school is being proposed, be denied those places in order to accommodate pupils of another faith or no faith; rather there will be a process by which targeted admissions for additional need will be established following local consultation.

For my part, I believe that a process which permits the proposer of the new school to work with the Local Authority in assessing that need, with additional processes of appeal where necessary, is the best way forward in as much as it ensures that these developments are a continuation of the sound tradition of cooperation between the Church authorities and those of local and central Government.

This leaves outstanding, as you indicated in our discussion, the question of the additional capital costs for these places for pupils of other faiths. Clearly if these figures are significant – as could indeed be the case if the proportion was as large as 25% - then further discussion would be needed if the Catholic community was not to be unfairly burdened.

I look forward to the on-going discussions between officials and I hope that a satisfactory way forward can be found.

With my best wishes

Yours sincerely

XVincent Nichols

Archbishop of Birmingham

Chairman of CES