Scaled-back projects range from an evaluation of trust schools, a study into secondary school admissions and a systematic review of the conduct of serious case reviews.

Simon Tanner, owner of Research as Evidence Ltd, made the freedom of information requests. He warned that the government has cut the evaluation of academies without indicating whether alternative work is underway to assess the investment of public money into such forms of schooling.

"Key government ministers have proved themselves to be somewhat disingenuous in their use of existing evidence to justify new policy moves," he claimed.

"How do we know they have authorised the cutting and curtailment of the right projects and what plans they have to address any information gaps they have created to check their new policy moves are working and assessing outcomes in an independent, rigorous and factual way?"

He added that curtailing ongoing projects could render the research unusable.

He said: "This could be a double whammy of waste – wasted research monies on unpublishable and unusable research from curtailed research and waste on spending on policy moves that early evidence could show may not do, or be doing, what was expected of them."

A DfE spokesman argued that research should reflect ministers’ priorities and inform the policies of the government. He added that research should not be done for research's sake.

"Ministers have been clear about the importance of using robust research, including international evidence, to underpin our reform programme," he said.

"That is why we plan to invest a similar amount in research this year as last. Taxpayers would rightly expect that we ensure we deliver the best value for money in any research carried out by the department, especially given the current economic climate."

Source: Children & Young People Now