David Blunkett, then Secretary of State for Education and Employment, said in December 1997: I am able to confirm that the Bill and the criteria I will lay down as part of our admissions policy will remove partial selection where it currently exists.
That causes havoc in terms of the admission of local children, and denies fairness to parents because of the lack of choices and opportunities open to them.
[8][9] These schools often also give preference to siblings of current pupils, filling the rest of their places using distance and/or faith criteria.
The sibling criterion is particularly controversial, as in combination with selection it often severely limits the number of local children admitted.
After many protests, the admissions code as published in February 2007 protected siblings of current students, and permitted schools to give priority to siblings provided that "their admission arrangements as a whole do not exclude families living nearer the school.