Parliament Workbench

Petition · PE01531 · Session 4

Remove Charitable Status from Private Schools

Closed Submitted 18 Jul 2014 Education
Signatures
0
309 online signatures with a country
Comments
20
Considered
5 meetings
in the Official Report

What it asks

Calling on the Scottish Parliament to urge the Scottish Government to remove charitable status, and thus taxpayer support, from private, fee-paying schools.

What the petitioner did first

I wrote to the OSCR on the 18th February 2014 querying their decision to classify private, fee-paying schools as charitable bodies, citing the inherent inequity of taxpayer subsidy for these elitist institutions whilst their financially strapped state counterparts receive no such financial support.
The OSCR's response of 5th March 2014 was unsatisfactory and made clear that they are ultimately not responsible for the guidelines by which they work, and that my concerns require to be directed towards the Scottish Government.

Where it was considered

Official Report
  1. 28 Oct 2014
    Public Petitions Committee
    New Petitions
    1 mention
  2. 13 Jan 2015
    Public Petitions Committee
    Current Petition
    1 mention
  3. 17 Mar 2015
    Public Petitions Committee
    Current Petitions
    1 mention
  4. 26 May 2015
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    1 mention
  5. 22 Sep 2015
    Public Petitions Committee
    Continued Petitions
    1 mention

Signatures by country

309 online signatures
  1. Scotland240 77.7%
  2. United Kingdom59 19.1%
  3. England6 1.9%
  4. Denmark1 0.3%
  5. Lithuania1 0.3%
  6. Not given1 0.3%
  7. Greece1 0.3%

Comments

20 comments, oldest first
  1. Professor Brian Boyd 21 Aug 2014
    If we want to achieve a fairer, more equal society, we need to realise that private schools are a barrier to this aim. The very least that should happen is that charitable status should be removed.
  2. Doug Daniel 22 Aug 2014
    Agree with Professor Brian Boyd
    - this is the very least that should happen. I was bemused when I first found out a few years back that private schools get charitable status. What we really need is a ban on private schools entirely, however. Their very existence undermines the idea of education being based on talent rather than money.
  3. Dale Bilson 22 Aug 2014
    I'm sorry, but this argument is too one-dimensional, sensationalised, and ill-informed.

    What, pray, do you think these schools do with their money? Do they pay out dividends to shareholders who languish on yachts on the caribbean? No
    - they reinvest in providing a quality education, including a commitment to providing this education (often enshrined since their very foundation) to those who would otherwise not be able to afford it.

    There are other issues of course
    - including the fact that these schools save the state money by educating children who would otherwise have their education state-funded
    - but this is the crucial reason they deserve to be considered charitable entities.

    Ultimately, if you consider the pupils of these schools to be getting an unfair advantage, then your issue is with the quality of state schools
    - it is counterintuitive to argue against the success of independent schools.
  4. ALISTAIR DONALDSON 25 Aug 2014
    I'm all for level playing fields
    - look at the current Westminster cabinet line-up.
  5. Lesley Ann Cassidy 29 Aug 2014
    Just another example of an unfair society that favours the rich.
  6. Patricia Cosgrove 3 Sep 2014
    Not before time
  7. John Edward, Director, SCIS 5 Sep 2014
    The Scottish Council of Independent Schools has produced a short response to this petition, which can be found on our website under "About SCIS" then "Press and Media". http://www.scis.org.uk/about-scis-membership/press-and-media/
  8. Andrew Harrison 7 Sep 2014
    I have no issue with Private Schools, and the best of luck to those who are fortunate enough to pay for the. However, they should not recurve state funding where state schools do not.
  9. mary doonan 7 Sep 2014
    Abolish inequality
  10. Andrew Morton 7 Sep 2014
    To them that hath shall be given.
  11. David Rushent 7 Sep 2014
    The rich o not need public subsidy.
  12. Alison Lamond 8 Sep 2014
    We need a fairer society
  13. Paul walker 8 Sep 2014
    I wa aware they got tax breaks but was not aware the state did not, this needs to be highlighted far and wide.
  14. Craig watt 9 Sep 2014
    In a free society you can't stop these places being set up, but you can recognise them as a force of inequality and stop subsidising them.
  15. Rikki Allan 19 Sep 2014
    Help those who really "need" help!
  16. Carole Harvey 25 Sep 2014
    I would like to see an end to charitable status for private education in Scotland. Private education, above all else is divisive in a community, creating a feeling of entitlement and difference in those who experience it. How was charitable status ever justified. Let us see the beginnings of social equality and fairness in Scotland. Let us see the merging of different cultures, not the seperations within society.
  17. Fiona Matheson 25 Sep 2014
    Private school foster elitism. They have no part in a fair Scotland
  18. John Wardhaugh 26 Sep 2014
    We need to do what is right.
  19. Peter Findlay 1 Oct 2014
    The initial step to humanitarian social division. Educating your children at a school on a basis of personal wealth is obscene in itself. If parents can afford the fees to these charity schools then the bill should include their tax burden also. Remove these elitist institutions charitable status immediately.
  20. Peter Findlay 1 Oct 2014
    In reply to Dale Bilson.
    You might have read the background information added to this petition. You would therefore know that the state appears to be subsidising the independent school. Their right to be deemed 'charitable' actually appears to be a rather good tax avoidance scheme. Sorry but far from saving State money,
    desperately needed for State schools, a few independent schools appear to benefit from the many Scottish taxpayers.