Indeed it is the way this Government traduces statistics and surveys that always makes me turn to look at the detail. The devil is not simply in the detail, it is in the pen of departmental spin doctors.

This relatively small survey of three out of 150 local authorities did throw up some unacceptable admission arrangements. Asking parents at Beis Yaakov primary school, in Barnet, to sign a direct debit for £895 per term is hardly my idea of a free education. The failure to sign up may not have resulted in a refusal of admission but it was not unreasonable for Government to assume the worst. Far more serious abuses were the refusal of some schools in the survey to give priority to children in the care of the local authority or to those with statements of special needs. However, the vast majority of breaches were due to a lack of clarity on admission forms rather than a deliberate attempt to deceive.

It was hardly surprising that the majority of schools "named and shamed" by the Secretary of State were faith based schools – because a significant number of the 6,867 faith schools are "voluntary aided" and have their own admission arrangements. This exercise has therefore been seen by many as a veiled attack on faith schools, the vast majority of which are run by the Church of England and the Roman Catholic Church.

I have always made clear, as I did recently at the Yorkshire Church of England Diocesan Conference, that I believe our faith schools have a unique opportunity to serve the needs of our most deprived children whose families often have difficulty meeting entrance criteria. The special contribution many faith schools make to the lives of their students as witnessed at St Aidan's CE or St John Fisher RC schools, in Harrogate, makes me believe that educational opportunity should be offered to the most needy as well as the most articulate or wealthy.

The role of government is not, as it appears to have been recently, to seek ways to undermine faith schools and make cheap political capital at their expense but to seek ways in which they can be made part of the answer to the growing lack of social cohesion in our society. It is this deepening gulf between sections of our society, mirrored in our schools, in our universities and in the workplace that Ed Balls and his colleagues should be concerned about. There is no panacea for educational failure and social poverty but there is ample evidence that good schools (and a great many church schools are very good schools) do make a difference.

I applaud, even if I do not agree with some of the attempts Government has made to tackle under-achievement. But despite Education Action Zones, Excellence in Cities, city academies, specialist schools, academies and trust schools we have seen two million children leave school since 1997 barely literate or numerate. Last year, almost seven per cent of 16 year-olds left schools without a single qualification, absence remains unacceptably high and 50,000 children a day play truant.

The fact that 100,000 families did not get their first choice of school this year is testimony to the fact that after 11 years of a Labour government we still have 20 per cent of our schools failing to meet the minimum standards the Government sets.

We therefore cannot blame parents who are ambitious for their children seeking places in "good" schools – after all, that was exactly what Ed Balls's parents did when they purchased for him a private education at Nottingham High School. Nor can we expect schools faced with a vastly oversubscribed admission list seeking legitimate ways to select their quota – it is an extremely difficult task.

If Ed Balls believes that certain faith schools are abusing their admission policies, then why not bring all admissions back under one common framework? Why not make the independent adjudicator responsible for agreeing admission arrangements rather than merely being an arbiter of last resort for complaints?

If he believes that faith schools are somehow part of the problem in our society, then do something about it but in the meantime concentrate on what really will solve the admissions crisis – more excellent local schools. And if he wants an example of what can be achieved look no further than my own old stomping ground, John Smeaton Community College in Leeds, voted the most improved school in Leeds a year ago and now attracting a full intake of local children.

Phil Willis is the MP for Harrogate and Knaresborough. His is chairman of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills Select Committee.