The Conservatives want to get rid of restrictions on expanding popular schools

At the party's spring conference, Health and Education Shadow Secretary Tim Yeo promised a "pupil passport" for all schoolchildren.

This scheme would allow popular, over-subscribed state schools to expand to meet parental demand.

"You'll be able to go to the right school even if your family lives in the wrong street," said Mr Yeo.

But the extra choice is limited, in that the over-subscribed schools would not be obliged to take any more children.

'Funding'

The policy initiative had been launched at last year's Conservative annual conference as a way of giving more choice to inner-city families.

But Mr Yeo has now announced that, under a Conservative government, this would be extended to all school pupils.

We want every family to be empowered - to have the choices which in the past have been available only to the better-off Tim Yeo, Shadow Health and Education Secretary

The "pupil passport" scheme would mean the abolition of the surplus places rule, which can limit the expansion of individual schools in a local area.

The Conservatives say that they would allow successful schools to increase their places - and that, as at present, these schools would benefit from the extra per-pupil funding.

It is intended to address the frustrations of parents who find that successful local schools are full up - and who do not want to send their child to a school with a poor record.

"We want every family to be empowered - to have the choices which in the past have been available only to the better-off," said Mr Yeo.

"Good schools will attract more pupils. And since every girl or boy who is accepted by a school will have funding that goes automatically with her or him, that school will be able to expand in response to demand.

"A popular faith school, for example, within the maintained sector, will be able to grow. So would a successful comprehensive.

"In some areas, completely new schools will spring up. The other side of this coin is that schools which few parents choose for their children will find their numbers decline," said Mr Yeo.

Asked whether the "passport" would include capital funding, so the successful schools would be able to build classrooms for the extra pupils, a party spokesperson said: "The diminishing unit costs of extra pupils will mean expanding schools have extra revenue to play with.

"But we do also plan to fund extra capacity on top of schools' per-capita revenue spending, both for school expansion and for new school opening.

"Whether this capital will be folded into the passport or funded separately we have not decided. This is an example of the sort of detail we will be putting out to consultation in the future."

'Not a fees subsidy'

The "passport", valued at about the cost of state education, is not intended to support or subsidise fee-paying schools, the Conservatives say.

It will not be allowed as part-payment for private school fees above this amount.

But there are circumstances in which the proposed passport can be used for fees - such as the few independent schools which charge fees below the anticipated level of the passport.

As an example, they mention a black community church school which charges parents what they can afford - and such a school would be able to access the funding from pupil passports.

The policy, addressing the parental desire to find good school places for their children, has been likened to previous voucher initiatives.

Voucher schemes are based on the idea that the parent is given the value of state education funding to "buy" the type of education they want for their child.

But in this case, ruling out spending on most fee-paying schools means the passport policy will be about generating extra places in non-charging, state schools.

Competition for places

Last summer, responding to such concerns, the government announced �37m to allow successful secondary schools to expand.

Funding already follows pupils, wherever they go to school in the state sector, but the problem for many parents has been the fierce competition to find places in the most popular schools.

This has seen many families sending their children to schools in other local authorities - and in London boroughs as diverse as Hackney and Richmond, about 40% of pupils are taught outside their own borough's secondary schools.

Before the last general election, the Conservatives proposed a voucher scheme to subsidise places at fee-paying schools for low-income families.

Under the subsequent leadership of Iain Duncan Smith, the Conservatives put forward the "state scholarship" proposal which would allow parents to use state funding to "purchase" places at other state schools.