Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what plans they have (1) to afford sixth form colleges the same funding protection as schools in any future spending allocation, and (2) to allow sixth form colleges zero VAT on new capital programmes as currently applies to the school sector.

Decisions about how 16-19 institutions will be funded in 2016/17 will be subject to the outcome of the next cross-government spending round.

Current capital allocations paid to sixth form colleges are in many cases already funded at 100% of the total project cost including VAT, where it is payable. This means that although colleges have to pay VAT on some building works they are not necessarily disadvantaged because of the VAT rules on Education Funding Agency funded programmes. However, we acknowledge that they are not able to recover their VAT costs on self-funded capital projects and certain areas of non-capital expenditure.

VAT refund schemes are the responsibility of Her Majesty’s Treasury. The Department for Education continues to look at how the capital needs of sixth form colleges can be met.