Question to the Ministry of Defence:

To ask His Majesty's Government how many representations they have received from members of the Armed Forces expressing concern about the decision to charge VAT on private school fees.

At the time of writing, the Ministry of Defence had received 53 letters or emails on this issue from Members of Parliament writing on behalf of a constituent, and members of the public. It is not possible to positively identify which of these are from members of the Armed Forces. In addition, there have been other informal approaches which have not been logged centrally.

We continue to support Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA) as the means of mitigating the disruption to Service children’s education caused by Service commitments involving frequent moves of the family home and recognise its importance for the Service personnel who utilise it.

That is why, to protect the integrity of the allowance, the Secretary of State for Defence directed that the cap on the current rates be lifted, and CEA rates recalculated, in recognition of the likely increase in school fees that will occur in January 2025 with the introduction of VAT on private school fees.

This re-rating exercise has now completed and Service personnel who claim the allowance have been informed by their respective Service of re-revised rates they can claim effective from 1 December in advance of the start of the spring term in January 2025.