Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent estimate she has made of the total annual VAT payments by further education colleges in England.

Education services supplied by an “eligible body” are exempt from VAT. For VAT purposes, an “eligible body” broadly refers to most regulated, publicly funded, or not-for-profit education providers. This means no VAT is charged on supplies of education made by further education colleges, nor are further education colleges able to recover the VAT they have incurred on their expenditure.