Christian parents lose High Court judicial review of VAT on private schools

The High Court has rejected claims made by a group of Christian schools, parents, and pupils that the Government’s policy for private schools to pay VAT breaches their human rights. Humanists UK has welcomed the judgment.

The Christian claimants gained permission to take a judicial review case in January, claiming the heavy secularisation of state schools meant their children could not be taught in line with their religious beliefs, if the increase in private schools’ fees from the VAT policy meant they had to withdraw their children. But the High Court ruled on Friday that private faith schools having to pay VAT does not contravene Article 2 of the First Protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights (ECHR) that requires the State to respect the rights of parents to educate their children in conformity with their beliefs.

The judges pointed out that in case law in England and Wales and at Strasbourg, there is no ECHR requirement for specific schooling to be provided and where parents can’t send their children to a school of their choice due to financial or resource limitations ‘if a mainstream state school is available, that will generally satisfy the [Article 2 of the First Protocol] right.’ They further argued ‘there is no general obligation not to hinder access to private education.’ This is in line with Equality and Human Rights Commission guidance that states the right to education ‘does not require the government to provide or subsidise any specific type of education.’ It is because state schools of no religious character are not actively non-religious. They are neutral on matters of religion or belief.

Considering the specific claims that evangelical Christians and Charedi Jewish students would be disproportionately negatively affected as mainstream state schools do not cater for their specific beliefs, the High Court dismissed these for their impracticability and discrimination. Trying to give a specific exemption for minority religious groups would give rise to the questions ‘why families at these schools were being given preferential treatment over other families which children attend other faith schools; how would one decide whether a given child had a “need” for an education with particular religious and cultural elements?’

The High Court ultimately found in favour of the Government’s defence: that the decision on exemptions for low-fee or certain religious private schools is a matter for Parliament to decide. The Government rejected the call for a faith school carve-out on its VAT plans for private schools in October and defended this position in the judicial appeal. Humanists UK supports the position that all schools should be treated the same in law.

Humanists UK’s Education Campaigns Manager Kieran Aldred commented:

‘We welcome this sensible judgment by the High Court that there should be no exemption for religious private schools in the application of the Government’s VAT policy. There has never been a requirement under European human rights law for governments to privilege religious communities over all others by subsidising their preferred faith-based education with public money. And there won’t be in England either.’