The academies minister has given up the last of a series of positions he held at the prominent academy trust he founded, more than five months after he announced he would do so.

The Inspiration Trust blamed the Department for Education for the delay in Lord Agnew resigning as one of its members - a role that is similar to that of a company shareholder.

Lord Agnew founded the Inspiration Trust, then known as the East Norfolk Academy Trust, in 2012.

He was appointed academies minister in September 2017, when he stepped down as chair of Inspiration, but he retained his positions a trustee and a member.

Concerns about potential conflicts of interest between his dual roles at the DfE and the academy trust were raised in the House of Lords last April.

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In response, Lord Agnew told peers that the situation had been discussed with the propriety and ethics team in the Cabinet Office, adding that “it was fully disclosed and is in my ministerial declaration”.

In August 2018 Lord Agnew resigned as a trustee of the Inspiration Trust, saying that because of his ministerial duties he had been “unable to give as much attention to the trust as I would prefer”.

At the same time, he said that he and his wife would resign from their positions as two of the trust’s five members.

Inspiration told Tes then that this change would require changes to the trust’s articles of association, which it said would take place in the coming days.

However, the trust’s accounts for 2017-18, which were published in December, said that the changes to the articles were “pending approval by the Department for Education”.

Asked by Tes about the delay last month, Inspiration Trust spokesman James Goffin said: “Our funding agreement requires us to seek consent from the secretary of state to change our articles of association where they relate to the appointment of members. We have applied to make the required changes and await a decision from the department.”

Now, documents filed at Companies House show that Lord and Lady Agnew finally left their roles as members earlier this month.

The trust has appointed two new members to replace them, Margaret Hollingsworth and John Hodgson.

Since Lord Agnew’s appointment to the DfE, Tes has been seeking a copy of his conflict of interest agreement.

The department blocked a freedom of interest request for the document, and the Information Commissioner’s Office is currently considering Tes’s appeal against this decision.

In November, the DfE told Tes that a previous agreement that Lord Agnew would not make any ministerial decisions about the Inspiration Trust was being “reviewed” following his decision to step down from his roles at the academy trust.