Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, with reference to paragraph 2.62 of the Autumn Budget 2024, HC 295, published on 30 October 2024, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the application of the standard VAT rate to independent schools on the teaching of (a) music and (b) the arts in such schools; and if she will make an assessment of the potential merits of providing support to such schools for such teaching.

HM Treasury (HMT) is responsible for VAT policy. HMT has published its assessment of the impacts of removing the VAT exemption that applied to private school fees, which can be found on here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/vat-on-private-school-fees/ac8c20ce-4824-462d-b206-26a567724643#who-is-likely-to-be-affected.

As this sets out, the government expects the impacts of these changes on the private and state sectors to be small.

The government's costings have been scrutinised by the independent Office for Budget Responsibility.

As set out in HMT’s response to the technical consultation in the VAT changes, performing arts schools that offer full-time education to children of compulsory school age and/or 16 to 19-year-olds for a charge will remain in scope of this policy. This is to ensure fairness and consistency across all schools that provide education services and vocational training for a charge. In addition to providing performing arts education, when educating children of compulsory school age, these institutions will also provide academic education. An exemption from the VAT rules would therefore be unfair to other private schools.

The department provides means-tested bursaries for eligible families as part of the Music and Dance Scheme (MDS) if their child has a place at any one of eight performing arts private schools. For the 2024/25 academic year, lower income families will receive additional support to ensure the total cost of their parental contributions do not rise from January 2025 as a result of the VAT change. This will benefit around half of the families with an MDS bursary for their child.