Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department plans to make an assessment of the potential impact of the application of VAT to private school fees on the long-term finances of (a) private and (b) state education sectors.

The Government has published a detailed costing note and Tax Impact and Information Note (TIIN) assessing the impacts of applying VAT to private school fees, including impacts on private schools and state schools: Private school fees — VAT measure - GOV.UK

How to fund VAT costs is a commercial decision for individual schools. The Government estimates that private school fees will increase by around 10% on average.

The number of children in independent schools has remained steady despite c75% real terms increase in average private school fees since 2000. The Government estimates that, in the long-term steady state, there will be 35,000 additional pupils in the state school sector, which is less than 0.5% of all state schools. Based on average 2024 to 2025 per-pupil spending in England, the government expects the revenue costs of pupils entering the state sector as a result of the VAT policy across the UK to steadily increase to a peak of around £270 million per annum after several years. In comparison, the Government estimates that the policy will raise over £1.7bn per annum by 2029/30.