Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, pursuant to the Answer of 30 July 2024 to Question 1266 on Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office: Private Education, if he will make an estimate of the potential impact of the imposition of VAT on school fees from January 2025 on his departmental budget in (a) 2024/25 and (b) 2025/26.

It has been long-standing practice under successive governments for the FCDO to support children of staff who have been, are, or will be posted abroad to complete key stages of their education without disruption. The FCDO cannot accurately estimate the impact of a 20 percent VAT increase on school fees, since we do not know if, or by how much schools will transfer the costs of fees to parents.