Here is the result in plain text:
The government’s policy of adding VAT to private school fees will “interfere with the fundamental right to education”, the High Court has heard. In front of a packed court room, with headteachers and students in school uniforms listening from the public gallery, Lord David Pannick KC, argued the policy is discriminatory. The legal challenge is being brought by families who say their needs “cannot be adequately met in the state sector” including those who have children with special educational needs and disabilities (SEND) and pupils at faith schools.
VAT on private school fees was introduced on 1 January across the UK. Lord Pannick, one of the country’s leading barristers in cases relating to government decisions, said the families he is representing “are not wealthy”. Two of the claimants have no alternative schools in their area to meet the needs of their children who have SEND, the court heard. Another family sent their child to a single sex independent primary school after they experienced “harassment” in their previous co-educational school.
Lord Pannick argued that adding VAT to their fees impedes their right to access education and the policy is “unprecedented” in all other Council of Europe states. Around a quarter of families affected by the VAT changes fall below the average wealth level, and the policy has been brought in “irrespective of the needs of the child” or of the ability of the family to pay, he told the court.
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