Private schools win landmark bursaries decision
Tax update 24/10/2011
English and Welsh private schools will no longer be forced to
give major bursaries to pupils from disadvantaged backgrounds if
they want to be eligible for millions of pound of tax relief.
A landmark legal ruling by the upper tribunal deemed that the
Charities Charity Commission, the regulator for the UK's charitable
operations, has been too prescriptive with their determining of how
fee-paying schools fulfil their obligations to provide 'public
benefit'.
The Independent Schools Council (ISC) - the body that represents
more than 1,200 fee-paying schools in the UK - had been granted a
judicial review last year of the 2006 Charities Act requirements on
how they needed to prove they offer good to the wider society. They
claimed that it brought the measurement of the public benefit of
independent schools down "to a crude calculation of fees and
bursaries".
The judgement stated that "although it is necessary that there
must be more than a de minimis or token benefit for the poor, once
that low threshold is reached, what the trustees [of a private
school] decide to do in the running of the school is a matter for
them, subject to acting within the range within which trustees can
properly act".
The ISC's chairman, Barnaby Lenon, welcomed the ruling, stating
that the decision would give schools appropriate flexibility on how
to fulfil their obligations.
"There's no appetite for a reduction in the co-operation between
private and state schools," he said. " In fact, we feel it is more
likely that co-operation will flourish when private schools can
decide for themselves what form this should take rather than be
told by a quango."
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