PROPOSALS to tighten the regulation of religious ‘supplementary’ schools without an official new code of practice have been welcomed.

Plans to bring in compulsory guidelines – promoted in the wake of March’s ‘Trojan Horse’ claims that Birmingham Islamic schools were being taken over by extremists – have been dropped.

Instead the Department for Education said yesterday: “We believe there is more to be done within the existing regulatory framework.”

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Blackburn MP Jack Straw, Lancashire council of Mosques chairman Abdul Hamid Qureshi and Pendle MP Andrew Steph-enson have welcomed the move.

A new code of practice for religious supplementary sch-ools, mainly Muslim madras-sahs, was recommended by the government's Extremism Task Force to ensure children were not exposed to intolerant views.

Home Secretary Theresa May suggested the code, covering evening classes, weekend schools or private tuition centres, should be mandatory.

Mr Qureshi said: “We welcome new measures within the existing system to deal with educational delivery.

“We have close links with mosques and madrassahs and what they teach. We have no evidence of any madrassahs in Lancashire teaching extremism.

“I think this is better than a new code of practice as a knee-jerk reaction to the Trojan Horse allegations.”

Tory MP Mr Stephenson said: “I think this is a good way of checking on standards.”

Former Labour Home Secretary Mr Straw said: “I welcome moves to improve standards. However, I do hear complaints from well-run madrassahs about the standards of teaching and health and safety in some of their smaller, back-street counterparts.”

An emergency Ofsted inspection of Blackburn’s Mus-lim Olive Primary School and fellow Taudeedul academies gave them a clean bill of health after a TV documentary accused them of promoting fundamentalism.