Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, what estimate she has made of the VAT costs incurred by sixth form colleges in each of the last five years; and if she will make a statement.

The Department for Education estimates that VAT accounts for about 3% of sixth form colleges’ expenditure each year.

The Education Funding Agency does not collect financial information from sixth form colleges in such a way that allows us to make a more precise year on year calculation of their VAT costs.