Education and Skills Funding Agency
53-55 Butts Road
Earlsdon Park
Coventry
CV1 3BH
Tel: 0370 000 2288
https://www.gov.uk/esfa
Date: 13 July 2017
Reference number: 2017-0032610
Dear Ms Bell
Thank you for your request for information, which was received on 26 June 2017. You
requested an up to date list of all multi-academy trusts (MATs) in England, including
contact information for the head of the trust and the financial director. You also asked to be
advised of where to find this information in future.
I have dealt with your request under the Freedom of Information Act 2000.
As part of the Department for Education, the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)
is responsible for funding academies, university technical colleges, studio schools and free
schools.
We have interpreted ‘head of the trust’ as the accounting officer. In line with the Academies
Financial Handbook, the accounting officer of a trust should be either its chief executive or
executive principal. Please see the below description of the accounting officer role from the
Academies Financial Handbook:
1.5.19 Responsibilities of the academy trust’s accounting officer
1.5.20 Each academy trust must designate a named individual as its accounting officer.
The individual must be a fit and suitable person for the role. In trusts comprising a single
academy this should be the principal. In multi-academy trusts it should be the chief
executive or executive principal.
We have interpreted ‘financial director’ as the chief financial officer. In line with the
Academies Financial Handbook, the chief financial officer of a trust should be the trusts
finance director, business manager or equivalent. The ESFA does not currently hold this
information for all trusts but have included where available.
The ESFA holds the following information about accounting officers and chief financial
officers that falls within scope of your request: first name, last name and direct email. This
information is currently publically available on EduBase
(http://www.education.gov.uk/edubase/home.xhtml) excluding direct emails which aren’t
currently published.
I have enclosed the data you requested with a small number of email addresses removed.
These are where the only details that we hold are individuals’ personal email addresses.
These are the personal data of the individuals concerned, and so we have applied section
40(2) (personal data). Personal data is that which relates to a living individual who can be
identified from that data, or from that data and other information which is likely to be in, or
to come into, the possession of the requestor. Disclosure of this information would
contravene a number of the data protection principles in the Data Protection Act 1998, and
would be regarded as ‘unfair’. By that, we mean the likely expectations of the data subject
that his or her information would not be disclosed to others and the effect which disclosure
would have on the data subject. Section 40(2) is an absolute exemption and is not subject
to the public interest test.
The information supplied to you continues to be protected by copyright. You are free to use
it for your own purposes, including for private study and non-commercial research, and for
any other purpose authorised by an exception in current copyright law. Documents (except
photographs) can be also used in the UK without requiring permission for the purposes of
news reporting. Any other re-use, for example commercial publication, would require the
permission of the copyright holder.
Most documents produced by a government department or agency (Education and Skills
Funding Agency) will be protected by Crown copyright. Most Crown copyright information
can be re-used under the Open Government Licence
(http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/doc/open-government-licence/). For information about
the OGL and about re-using Crown copyright information please see The National Archives
website
http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/uk-gov-licensing-
framework.htm. Copyright in other documents may rest with a third party. For information about obtaining
permission from a third party see the Intellectual Property Office’s website at
www.ipo.gov.uk. If you have any queries about this letter, please contact me. Remember to quote the
reference number above in any future communications.
If you are unhappy with the way your request has been handled, you should make a
complaint to the department by writing to me within two calendar months of the date of this
letter. Your complaint will be considered by an independent review panel, who were not
involved in the original consideration of your request.
If you are not content with the outcome of your complaint to the department, you may then
contact the Information Commissioner’s Office.
Yours sincerely,
Ashley Linegar
Education and Skills Funding Agency
2