Labour’s private school tax raid ‘likely illegal’

[Zizzagaaaaaww]

Thought some may like to read this article

archive.ph/i1XD3

Sir Keir Starmer’s planned VAT raid on private schools is likely to breach human rights law, The Telegraph can reveal.
The Labour leader risks falling foul of European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) law <a class="break-all" href="https://archive.ph/o/i1XD3/www.telegraph.co.uk/money/tax/labour-private-school-tax-moronic-policy/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">over his party’s flagship policy, one of Britain’s top constitutional and human rights lawyers has warned.
Lord Pannick, who has taken on some of the UK’s most high-profile court cases, backed legal advice warning that making private schools subject to VAT was likely to breach ECHR law.
He told The Telegraph: “It would be strongly arguable that for a new government to impose VAT on independent schools would breach the right to education.

“That is because all other educational services will remain exempt from VAT and the charging of VAT on independent schools alone is designed to impede private education, and will have that effect.”

The KC and crossbench peer said that the Labour policy risked breaching two articles in the ECHR which protect the right to education.
He referred to legal advice written in response to Labour policies as far back as the early 1980s, when the country’s most senior lawyers warned that plans to end tax exemptions for private schools or abolish the institutions altogether would likely breach international human rights law to which Britain is signed up.
Previous leaders of the party have floated the idea of taxing private schools as part of plans to integrate them into the state sector. Under former party leader Michael Foot, the Labour manifesto of 1983 pledged to “charge VAT on the fees paid to [private] schools”.
The policy to abolish the schools was eventually shot down by senior lawyers, who argued it could be at odds with the ECHR and spoke specifically about the risk of imposing VAT.
While Sir Keir has ruled out abolishing private schools, he plans to force the institutions to pay business rates and 20pc VAT on tuition fees.
In an unearthed legal opinion from 1987, seen by The Telegraph, the late Lord Lester and Lord Pannick, prominent human rights lawyers, concluded a government “could not lawfully prohibit fee-paying, independent education or remove the benefits of charitable status or impose VAT in respect of such education” while a member of the court.
A foreword to the opinion written in 1991 by Lord Scarman, who served as a Law Lord in the precursor to the Supreme Court, said it would “encourage a challenge which could be mounted by taking the argument to the [ECHR]… if ever a government should seek to abolish or discriminate against [private schools]”.
The opinion was jointly written by Lord Lester and Lord Pannick as advice for the Independent Schools Council (ISC) and later published in its journal. Lord Pannick confirmed his belief that the argument still stands today.

We got an EHCP in 20 weeks last year. Not 2 years

And all the people l know always vote the same. They are not swing voters.

Universities are state education. There are no private ones to apply vat to.

Music, dance, art are all optional extras. They are also supplied as part of normal education. And they are often taught by people who don’t reach the vat threshold.

How about the Royal Ballet etc? They are incredibly concerned about the impact of this policy on the Arts ie making it inaccessible to anyone but the truly wealthy.

I don’t know about the Royal Ballet. I assume it’s an independent school? Why should they be excluded?

Because they offer many bursaries and scholarships for talented lower income pupils but these would be threatened if VAT comes in.

So @Philandbill what extra funding are you getting under this policy?

And if a school get more bums on seats you need a certain number of bums on seats to actually help your budget. One or two extra pupils isn’t going to make up the shortfall to pay staff salaries if you are looking at redundancies and making up mixed classes. Single form entry schools are the hardest hit funding and falling school roll wise. The increase in pupils need to fill up classes not just a couple of seats.

I just don't agree with this. Of course there are some who (possibly because they have come into contact with the worst version of 'Tarquin' in their lives) rub their hands in glee at him being inconvenienced. But the vast majority - no

For many others it is about equality of opportunity and a world in which a child's particular skills and abilities allow them to reach their potential. Not because their parents have bought them a chance to jump the queue but because they have the chance to have an equal crack of the whip.

And? They’d still have to pay vat.

Why does an elite school produce ballerinas? There are plenty of other routes.

Universities are charities and there are a couple of private ones.

But they are part of expected state education ( even though this government have absolved all responsibility to them) and are not there on people’s ability to pay unlike private schools.

And they are a necessity not a luxury.

@IFollowRivers but this policy doesn’t tackle inequality. Some smaller less expensive private schools will likely close. Thesetype of schools are the ones where some military and many pupils with SEN go. The larger more prestigious public schools like Eton will be fine. Meanwhile, state schools will get little or no extra funding and so will be worse off. Remember if you only pick up a couple of extra pupils they will only get funding for them 12-18 months down the line.

See this is how it creeps. First introduced as an attach on the wealthy, then creeps to the Arts because they are a privilege then moves on to the next area.
I strongly believe the Arts should not be taxed in any way shape or form and should be state funded to increase access, not restrict it. If you feel the Royal Ballet should be taxed then the next step is RADA, all the stage schools etc and then you restrict the Arts purely to the elite as it used to be. Do we really want to go down that road?

But stage schools are elitist. I’ve never met anyone who’s been to one. They seem to be a South East privilege thing.

RADA is just a university.

Of course it is not going to resolve the whole issue or even much of it in the short term.

But it is an acknowledgement that there is an issue that lies within the divisive nature of our education system (all selective schools - not just private) and I think it is about as far as they are able to go after so long in the wilderness.

Which of course is enshrined in UK law. There are some fundamental misunderstandings on various threads about the speed at which this could be executed. Anyone who thinks it will just happen is much mistaken. That would be unlawful, as VAT on any type of education should be.

Under the Tories, the last 15 years have seen underfunding of every stage of the SEN system, just off the top of my head

-training mainstream nursery and school teachers to initially spot SEN need,
-training for SENCOs and classroom teachers to support SEN need in mainstream schools,
-recruiting professional expertise to formally assess and diagnose SEN,
-the professional services needed at administrate a SEN system based on evidenced need, like at local authority level with EHCP applications,
-different professional groups providing evidenced SEN support and therapies for the kids whose assessments show they need it,
-providing sufficient appropriate special school/alternative provision places,
-providing sufficient appropriate services for SEN young adults leaving schools and needing to find appropriate work if they can. And so on.

With the backdrop of a bigger population and therefore a greater number of kids with SEN needing help, plus historical unmet need finally starting to be recognised particularly for girls with SEN, and children from ethnic minorities, the seemingly-exploding level of need is entirely predictable.

The Tories’ disgusting answer to this total system overwhelm and gridlock caused by their own choice to underfund services for SEN families (which I dearly hope will one day attract a disability discrimination EHCR case..) has been to foist the Safety Valve policy on to financially struggling local councils.

This ‘Safety Valve’ rations the number of EHCPs that can be given out. Thereby depriving an agreed arbitrary proportion of the SEN children of support they need, specifically to save money. I would love to know what are Labour proposing to do about this?

Rationing state help to families who desperately need it, is disgustingly unfair. We’ve already seen that across the whole SEN system. And if the private school workaround isn’t affordable for those who can any more, then even more families will need the state system of support, putting even more pressure on that.

The waste that this avoidable system breakdown is already creating in the public services is unbelievable. Where are the informed and fair proposals to cut this waste from any political party?

Take for example, the admin costs of the families with SEN kids in state schools who are being threatened with fines for poor attendance. Their children may not be attending for very good reasons do so with the unsuitability of what’s on offer at school for the needs of the child.

There is a national shortage of educational psychologists who do EHCP assessments, and lots of schools can’t afford to provide suitable additional support for kids who don’t have EHCPs. And even if the child doesn’t have an EHCP, perhaps they can’t go to school because they aren’t getting the support they need to do so, which is listed on their EHCP, due to funding cuts. Or maybe a kid is at home because the school placement has broken down entirely and the child is on waiting lists to find special schools that better meet their needs.

Yet local authorities are saying to schools that the schools can only be exempt parents in this situation from £££££ fines, with a doctor’s note. Thereby pushing the costs of this over to the NHS. The schools all know full well why a struggling child with SEN is off school, because they have been desperately trying to keep those kids in school. But local government are being pressured by central government, not to accept that evidence from the school, without a GP wasting their time on confirming it. Imagine the stress that that situation puts on to parents- GPs usually are virtually uncontactable due to system overwhelm there too, and anyway many have next to no expertise on SEN.

There is a deeply depressing lack of knowledge and political will at the top to actually sort these problems out in a way that’s fair. Or just to listen to parents of SEN kids.

Universities aren't a necessity. They also require the student to pay fees.

So are you saying no one needs a degree? No one?

No doctors, architects, pharmacists, teachers, lawyers?

Yeah ok. 👌

And yeah they pay fees in England. Not in Scotland though. But it should be free.

I think we are fundamentally unpicking all types of additional education. Universities charge tuition fees, why not add VAT to those? There are plenty of dance, art, drama and other out of school lessons that fall under the same act. What about private tuition? Being registered for VAT is an obligation if your business has a turnover of 90k or more. The law being redrafted will undoubtedly have other consequences.

Universities can’t charge vat. They are ultimately state institutions regulated by the state and not private institutions where parents pay the fees.

Pointless argument.

You've mixed up your PPs. I wasn't the one talking about a falling birth rate. The school I work in is oversubscribed and we are already over PAN in several classes.
My concern is trying to meet the sometimes considerable needs of the children in my school. I find it hard to have much sympathy for those so outraged by VAT on private school fees that this is the single issue they are voting on. Parents at my school are almost all the working poor. Recently, at our after school care club, one of the carers asked if a child would have a birthday cake that evening as it was their birthday. Child's response was "Mummy hasn't got enough money for a birthday cake." Carers did a whip round and gave the mother some cash when she collected her child at 5.30. Next day child said they'd had cake and "Mummy bought some bread and milk too". Of course our learning mentor offered more support to the parent the next day but this made me want to cry.
This is what our pathetic government has wrought with their austerity policies over the last fourteen years. As I said before, I'm hoping for a Labour landslide, it can't be worse than the entitled and out of touch shower currently in power.

Well said @EHCPerhaps.

Sixth Form Colleges pay VAT. This is widely acknowledged to be the best performing and cheapest area of state education. Not sure how it can be seen as wrong therefore that businesses (which private schools are) pay VAT.

@Philandbill but this policy isn’t going to help sny if those things that @EHCPerhaps has listed. Wouldn’t it have been better for Labour to state what they are going to do about these issues rather than blathering on about putting VAT on private school fees. If a state school is already struggling with the number of unfunded kids with SEN, how will it make it better if you get a couple more who have had to leave their private school?

6th form state schools dont pay VAT on the funding per pupil though do they?
Indi schools already pay VAT on all purchases etc but currently can't claim it back.