THE Department for Education is continuing to keep secret a report that could affect the future of grammar schools in Kent and Medway.

Whitehall officials have ruled the report must be kept under wraps because ministers are still in the process of considering government policy.

The Kent Messenger Group formally appealed for the report to be disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act. It appealed after its initial request for its publication was rejected by the DfES.

The report was commissioned and completed more than a year ago but its findings have yet to be shared with either the MPs who asked for it or with ministers.

It considered whether there should be changes to the regulations that allow parents in areas with selective schools to trigger votes on the future of grammar schools.

In particular, it is understood to have examined if the current regulations were skewed against those opposed grammar schools and if there were alternatives.

It also examined whether a loophole in the law that allows just ten parents to trigger the process across the whole country, should be closed.

That loophole has cost the taxpayer £1.7million in grants to schools for compiling lists of parents who in theory, would be eligible to vote.

Now the DfES, which appointed an senior civil servant to conduct a review and examine our appeal has stood by the original decision, which argued the report was exempt under the Freedom of Information Act because it was part of "an ongoing process of policy discussion."

* The KM Group is submitting an appeal to the Information Commissioner over the DfES ruling.