Damian Hinds told religious representatives at a round table discussion on Tuesday that the move would place “freedom into the hands of school leaders”.

Academy schools are state-funded schools in England which are directly funded by the Department for Education and are independent of local authority control.

Mr Hinds detailed the benefits of faith schools changing status to Premier.

“There’s more leeway on things like the curriculum,” he said. “You’re still expected to have a broad and balanced curriculum but you’re able to make that a bit more tailored if you wish to.

“A lot of schools don’t – they want to stick with the national curriculum.

“But for those who do wish to – make it a bit more tailored to something different.”

Mr Hinds also highlighted to the representatives from all major religions the role faith organisations have had in the Government’s education reforms since 2010.

He said: “The Church of England is the biggest name in primary education in England and the Catholic Church is the biggest single name in secondary education. And there are other faith groups involved of course as well.

“They’re a really, really important part of our diverse school system.”

Faith schools make up one-third of the schools in England and more than a quarter of state-funded faith schools already have academy status.

Mr Hinds…

Jeremy Hunt said Supreme Court justices were “standing up for religious freedom” in blocking a proposed legal challenge against the Christian women’s release last October.

Speaking at a press conference at the Foreign Office on Wednesday, he said: “We are obviously very encouraged by what happened.

“We should not underestimate the challenges for a country like Pakistan which has got huge pressures in standing up for religious freedom in the way that the Supreme Court has done.

Asia Bibi spent eight years on death row because the court in Islamabad overturned her conviction for blasphemy.

The decision proved to be deeply controversial among hard-line Islamists who wanted the mother-of-five to be publicly hanged.

She always denied the allegation she had insulted the Islamic prophet Muhammad following a disagreement with a group of Muslim women over the use of a water cup.

Mr Hunt continued: “Our priority throughout has being the safety of Asia Bibi and her family.

“We have done a huge amount of work behind the scenes, working with other countries as well. And we’re still very hopeful of a good outcome.

“But I think it’s also very important to remember that this happens to be the case that has caught the public eye.

“There are…

The congregation at Oasis Waterloo were told on Sunday that, with the worsening temperatures, this was a way their actions could match their faith.

The cards allow people to top-up their travel money and tap through barriers on London’s public transport – on buses you can only use an Oyster card or contactless card and cash is no longer an option. 

Steve Chalke, a well-known speaker at Christian events and founder of Oasis’ charitable work, told Premier that the idea came to him when preparing a sermon on the time Jesus tells Peter to drop his fishing nets and follow him (in Matthew 4).

Chalke said: “I talked about the fact that what we do with some bits of the Bible is we turn them into metaphors when actually they’re literal…in this case Jesus actually asks Peter to follow him and we turn it back into ‘Well, stay the same as you are, carry on life as it is and just believe these things’ when in actual fact this is about being faithful, showing an allegiance, a loyalty, a change of lifestyle, a change of habits, a change of use of resources and money.

“I knew that the weather was going to get cold…I said ‘How about we do something to get people off the streets?’ There are estimated to be by the London’s mayor’s office about between 2,500 and 3,000 people sleeping rough in doorways – you can’t get them all into churches and other community buildings.

“With the…