Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor for the Exchequer, if she will take steps to ensure that pupils without an education, health and care who have experienced trauma are exempt from the introduction of VAT on private school fees.

The Government is committed to breaking down barriers to opportunity, ensuring every child has access to high-quality education, which is why we have made the tough decision to end tax breaks for private schools. This will raise revenue for essential public services, including investing in the state education system.

Where pupils are placed in a private school because their needs cannot be met in the state sector, and they have their places funded by their Local Authority, the Local Authority will be able to reclaim the VAT they incur on these pupils’ fees. In Northern Ireland, it will be the Education Authority who fund placements in private schools and will be able to reclaim the VAT in this way.

Where a placement at a specific private school is necessary to meet the pupil’s needs in England, that school will be named in the pupil’s Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP). This means that the VAT change will not impact pupils with the most acute additional needs, where these needs can only be met in private schools.