THE system of parental ballots used to determine the fate of grammar schools is a waste of time and money and should be immediately suspended, say MPs.

The call has come from members of the influential House of Commons’ education select committee.

In a damning and highly critical report today, the cross-party committee of MPs says the Government regulations allowing parental referendums to decide if grammar schools should be scrapped are flawed.

The Kent Messenger Group is campaigning for the regulations to be scrapped, after exposing how £1.7 million of public money has been wasted on preparing for votes that have never taken place.

Now MPs have drawn the same conclusion. In their report, they say: “The current arrangements for a selection of local people to decide the admissions arrangements of their grammar schools are flawed. The petition and balloting arrangements are a gesture in the direction of local democracy but waste the time and resources of all concerned.”

The report goes on to say that it is “high time” for a review of the law and the current arrangements should be suspended: “In any event, the current provision for grammar school ballots should be immediately withdrawn so as to ensure that no further resources are wasted in this exercise.”

Earlier this year, the Kent Messenger Group used a little-known Code of Practice on access to government information forcing the Department for Education to reveal hundreds of thousands of pounds had been paid to schools in Kent and Medway.

The money has been paid to schools for collecting the signatures of tens of thousands of parents who would, in theory, be entitled to vote. No ballot has ever happened as campaigners have never gone past the first and most costly part of the process.

Chatham and Aylesford Labour MP Jonathan Shaw, a member of the select committee, said.

“We want the Government to immediately withdraw the current arrangements to stop any more money being wasted.”

Martin Frey, a spokesman for STEP - Stop The Eleven Plus - welcomed the findings.

“The regulations urgently need reforming. We are delighted MPs have accepted the case we put forward. We are confident that if there was a level playing field, in which the arguments could be properly put, there would be an end to the selective system in Kent,” he said.

* In another key recommendation, the MPs said schools should be bound a legal code on admissions. Under existing arrangements, the report found it could be virtually impossible for parents to get the school they want for their child.