Scotsman Daily Bulletin_ Monday, July 1

The Scotsman

Deputy Editor Alan Young and Education Correspondent Calum Ross talk through the stories of the day

Transcript

00:00Hello and welcome to the Scotsman's Daily Bulletin for Monday. I'm Alan Young, I'm Deputy

00:12Editor of the Scotsman. I'm joined today by our Education Correspondent Callum Ross to

00:17take a look through the main headlines. Hi Callum.

00:21Hi Alan.

00:23Let's have a look at the front page first. And you can see today we splash on Callum's

00:30story and it's around the Labour plans to impose VAT on private school fees. This it

00:38has been warned is going to have the biggest impact in Scotland, particularly in Edinburgh

00:44where a quarter of pupils are privately educated. We picture on the front there Andy Murray

00:49still to say whether he's going to compete in the singles at this year's Wimbledon.

00:54We're expecting an announcement later on today and obviously we cover all the Euro action

01:02as well. So Callum, talk us through today's story.

01:08Of course Alan. I mean obviously everyone expecting a Labour victory at Thursday's election

01:14would be a big shock if that didn't happen. One of the party's most eye-catching policies

01:21really certainly in terms of education has been the proposal to end the VAT exemption

01:28on private school fees which would be UK-wide. As can be imagined, independent schools are

01:37not very supportive of this. They say that most of them would not be able to absorb the

01:44full impact of this policy and that will mean that fees will rise and for some families,

01:51potentially thousands in Scotland, they could face difficult decisions over whether to continue

01:58sending their children to the schools they currently go to. Now today's story is really

02:03about the Scottish Council of Independent Schools, SCIS. They've written to Bridget

02:10Philipson, Labour's shadow education secretary, I guess she could be education secretary in

02:19a few days' time and they're wanting talks really. They want a meeting with the party

02:24because they want to make the UK party aware that there are Scottish-specific circumstances

02:30that might not have been fully considered by Labour. They certainly believe that the

02:35impact of the policy will hit harder in Scotland and that's for various reasons including lower

02:41incomes generally in parts of England. So they want a full consultation and I think

02:48what they really want as well is time. They don't want this implemented immediately, they

02:54want a bit of time to put the processes in place and also for families to be able to

02:58work out what they're going to do.

03:00And I guess a lot of people would look at this and think, well, you can afford to send

03:05your child to a private school, surely you can cope with the fees going up, everything

03:12else in life is on the increase. But there are particular concerns in Scotland, aren't

03:18there, that a 20% rise in fees will lead to potentially thousands of pupils going back

03:26into the local authority system?

03:29That's right. I mean, SCIS has estimated that 6,000 pupils in independent schools will

03:37be heading back into state schools, you know, big disruption on them. That's based on some

03:4320% reduction, which is a figure from down south. But I mean, you know, the Institute

03:51of Fiscal Studies says it's more likely to be 3 to 7% reduction, which would be kind

03:58of between 1 and 2,000 basically. And to put that in context, I mean, there's 3,000 Ukrainian

04:05children in Scottish schools, you know, as a result of the war over there. So I think

04:10we really need to wait and see what the impact's going to be. Indeed, you know, I contacted

04:15council, Edinburgh City Council, Glasgow City Council, Perth and Kinross Council. Now, they

04:21share the three areas with the most, highest numbers of children going to independent schools

04:27who kind of live in the areas, and none of them said they had seen any impact yet. But

04:32obviously, you know, the election's not even happened, the policy's not been detailed,

04:38and the schools won't have been able to decide exactly the extent fees are going to go up

04:42and everything else. So it is early days, but it's certainly one to watch in terms of

04:46the impact.

04:48Indeed. Thanks very much for talking us through all that, Callum. You can read the full story

04:52in today's paper and online at Scotsman.com. Please do keep an eye on the site throughout

04:56the day where we'll have all the very latest breaking news and analysis. And if you can

05:02do subscribe, then you'll be able to read and watch absolutely everything that we do.

05:07If you're on the bike today, as ever, do pick up a copy of the paper from me and from Callum.

05:13It's bye for now.

05:17Bye.

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