Baroness Barran (Con)

My Lords, I shall speak to Amendments 71 and 72 in my name and express my support for Amendment 72A in the name of my noble friend Lord Black of Brentwood. Amendment 71 would require an impact assessment on rescinded facilities that private schools offer to state schools. Amendment 72 would require an annual statement of how many pupils have been moved into the state system as a result of Clause 5. Many in this Committee have expressed concerns about the impact of the combined tax measures on private schools introduced by this Government. We had a number of examples from the noble Baroness, Lady Pinnock. The changes announced in this legislation, combined with VAT applied to private schools, will no doubt harm many institutions. Indeed, as we have heard, we are already seeing the consequences of the Government’s decisions, with a number of private schools, including, most recently I think, Bedstone College in Shropshire, closing their doors. As my noble friend Lord Lexden said in relation to an earlier group, there appears to be an emerging trend of small, rural private schools being particularly vulnerable. This raises the real risk of thousands of pupils across England being displaced and moving into the state system. As we discussed earlier, in particular parts of the country, that is not much pressure on the state system, but is potentially the reverse. However, in some parts of the country, such as Bristol or Surrey, schools are operating at full capacity. It is essential that we have proper oversight and transparency of the impact of this legislation on the state sector. It is with that in mind that I tabled Amendment 72. I also welcome Amendment 70 in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Storey. It is clear that all of us share many of the same concerns. On Amendment 71, as we have heard, many private schools have a long history of collaboration with state schools and of sharing their facilities and resources. My noble friend Lord Moynihan gave an eloquent exposition on the value of sports grounds, but theatres and science laboratories provided by private schools offer many state school pupils opportunities that otherwise they might not have. Therefore, the closure of such schools would be felt by state school students as well as private school students as they would lose access to these resources. The Minister says—and I understand why—that it reflects the Government’s expectations for these schools to continue to offer public benefit, and one option for that is sharing their facilities, but, as we have heard, their income is being pressured from a number of different directions, including by this legislation, so I urge the Minister to consider my Amendment 71 and all the others in this group.