Lord Alton
House of Lords
5th September 2024
I join with others in welcoming the noble baroness to her new role and wish her well and thank the admirable Lord Lexden for initiating this debate.
I am also grateful to the Minister for kindly agreeing to respond to a number of detailed questions which I sent her.
For family reasons my noble friend Lord Pannick is unable to be here today.
He has looked at this Education Tax and its potential conflict with the European Convention on Human Rights.
He believes that it “is strongly arguable that the imposition of VAT would breach Article 2 of the First Protocol read on its own (access to educational facilities) or with Article 14 of the Convention (arbitrary discrimination in the enjoyment of educational facilities)”
I serve on the Joint Committee on Human Rights whose job it is to monitor potential conflict between Government policies and the ECHR.
Lord Pannick says “ I think it would be a very valuable service if the Joint Committee could look at this”.
I agree and hope the Minister will assure us that the Government will not proceed if it is found to be in breach of the ECHR.
We need also to scrutinise other claims – such as the impact of public finance.
The Adam Smith Institute calculates that far from generating revenue the policy could lead to a staggering loss of up to £2 billion.
The noble baroness has seen that assessment and the work of The Institute for Fiscal Studies along with a Times editorial all questioning the Government’s assumptions about raising revenue.
Look too at what happened in 2015 when Greece introduced a similar tax.
Schools were forced to close, whilst others inevitably passed on the tax to parents. The same thing is already happening here.
Those driven by dogma have said this is all justified as a long overdue attack on the ultra-rich.
Paradoxically, this regressive double tax, on people who have already paid for universal education through their income tax, will not impact wealthy families who pay for education through property purchases in sought-after school districts -merely increasing educational inequalities.
But this education tax will disproportionately impact middle-income families like those of the 168,000 children who receive financial support from the independent schools or the 10,000 who pay no fees.
These are the families, many of whom have made great sacrifices for their children’s education, who will suffer not those with ultra deep pockets.
Those affected will include men and women in our armed forces; families who make use of the Continuity of Education Allowance. Some say they are having to consider exiting military service.
How does the Minister respond to their appeals and to professionals, including those working in education, policing, and healthcare, who rely on the wrap-round care provided by many independent schools; or to the single mother whose letter the Minister has seen and for whom independent schooling is the only way in which she can maintain her employment.
And what about the impact on children with special educational needs or mental illness, whose parents have chosen an independent school because of a school’s particular expertise or focus on those children?
Finally — introducing this tax mid-way through the school year, on accelerated timeframes will adversely affect children who may struggle to integrate into new schools, some forced to change curriculum, exam boards, or subjects.
Top of our concerns should be the impact on children. It clearly isn’t.
This taxation is unjust, unfair, may be in breach of the ECHR and will likely worsen educational inequalities.
The Government should dwell a pause and think again.
