PARLIAMENTARY WRITTEN QUESTION
Private Education: Armed Forces (29 July 2024)

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will make an assessment of the potential impact of removing the VAT exemption on independent school fees on (a) families within the armed forces community and (b) families in receipt of the Continuity of Education Allowance.

Asked by:
Sarah Green (Liberal Democrat)

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 education system.

The Government has set out the details of this policy in the technical note Applying VAT to private School Fees and Removing the Business Rates Charitable Rates Relief for Private Schools.

There are a small number of circumstances where the government contributes to the private school fees of children of UK military service personnel and UK diplomatic officials through the Continuity of Education Allowance (CEA).

The government will monitor closely the impact of these policy changes on affected military and diplomatic families, with the upcoming Spending Review being the right time to consider any changes to this scheme.

A technical consultation on the technical note and draft VAT legislation will be open until 15 September 2024.

Answered by:
James Murray (Labour)
3 September 2024