To ask the Minister of Education for her assessment of whether the stewardship role of Trustee Governors will be impaired for those Voluntary Grammar and Grant Maintained Integrated schools with charitable status as a result of the removal of borrowing powers.

As a number of your questions relate to the same issue, I have responded to each of them in the combined response below.

The value of borrowings undertaken by Voluntary Grammar and Grant Maintained Integrated schools for the last ten financial years, based on information held by the Department, is set out in Table A below.

Work is ongoing by the Department in seeking to challenge the classification status of Voluntary Grammar and Grant Maintained Integrated schools as Non Departmental Public Bodies (NDPBs) and the consequent impact on borrowing. The Department’s current assessment is that this matter does not impact on the stewardship role of Trustees of these schools, although this will be kept under review.

The list of Voluntary Grammar and Grant Maintained Integrated schools categorised as NDPBs is set out in Table B below.

As advised above, work is ongoing by the Department in seeking to challenge the impact on borrowing by these schools as a result of their NDPB classification status, although the issues involved are complex. Most recently the Department has sought further legal advice in relation to this matter and is currently awaiting a response.

Table A

Note 1: Royal School Armagh has a second loan, the balance outstanding at 31 March 2019 was £185,845. The Department does not hold any further information regarding this loan.

Note 2: The information in the table relates only to borrowing/loans undertaken by Voluntary Grammar and Grant Maintained Integrated schools. It does not include any debts which may relate to grant recovery.

Table B