Unlike local authority maintained schools in England, but in common with other types of academy and with independent schools, free schools are allowed to employ teachers without Qualified Teacher Status (QTS). The Coalition government said this freedom enables "innovation, diversity and flexibility"[52] and "the dynamism that characterises the best independent schools".[53] The Labour Party have expressed their opposition to this and said that if elected they would require teachers in academies and free schools be "properly qualified".[54]