If ever there was a time for cheers and fist-pumps in the offices of the Catholic Education Service it was last Friday. For years the CES has lobbied the Government to lift its free schools admissions cap – that is, a cap stopping free schools from selecting more than half their pupils on the grounds of faith. Because of this cap, the Church, one of the main providers of education in Britain, has opened no free schools at all, shutting itself out of one of former education secretary Michael Gove’s key reforms.