School Fees: VAT

Lord Gove Excerpts

Monday 13th October 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

I am grateful to the noble Baroness for her question. I know that this is an issue that she cares deeply about; we have had discussions on this point in the past. We recognise that the current SEN system is not delivering the outcomes that pupils and parents rightly expect and is placing unsustainable burdens upon schools, local authorities and taxpayers. The Government will set out the detail of our reform plans in the context of the wider schools strategy later this year. In terms of specific pupil movements, as I say, those movements are in line with the estimates that we set out at the time of the last Budget. Those estimates were assessed by the OBR and we remain confident in them. It is worth noting that so far this year 49 private schools have closed but 70 private schools have opened, and of those 70 private schools, 59 are special educational schools.

[Lord Gove (Con)]

My Lords, the Government pledged at the last election that this tax increase would pay for 6,500 new teachers in state schools. Over the past year, this Government have seen the number of teachers in state schools drop by more than 400. How can minus 400 be an addition, even in the crazy mathematics of His Majesty’s Treasury?

[Lord Livermore (Lab)]

The noble Lord mentions crazy mathematics—I think he was one of the leading proponents of Brexit, so he would know all about crazy mathematics. This measure raises £1.7 billion to spend on state schools. He will have seen in the previous SR settlement for schools that, to raise school standards for every child and break down barriers to opportunity, the Government are increasing the core schools budget by £4.7 billion per year by 2028-29. This is a real-terms increase of 1.1% on average each year, on a per-pupil basis, taking per-pupil funding to a new record high.