Private schools rule out refunds

Schools complain the law was changed without notice

Independent schools accused of fee-fixing have said there will be no refunds for parents.

The Office of Fair Trading has said 50 schools may have broken competition law by sharing details about fees.

Such information sharing was outlawed in 2000 and lawyers have suggested parents might seek compensation for fees charged between then and 2004.

But the Independent Schools Council said there was no evidence any refunds would be due.

The body, which represents 1,000 public schools, said there was evidence that sharing information kept fees down rather than inflating them.

Its general secretary, Jonathan Shephard, said: "Schools have no motive to raise more money than they need.

"Any money raised from fees has to be spent on the children and the schools so any extra money might be spent on better food or another brick for the gym.

"There is no evidence than any refund would be due and there is no case."

Possible fines

The schools involved, he said, were angry about the weight and cost of the Office of Fair Trading's investigation.

They have until March to respond to the OFT's preliminary findings. If the OFT confirms that the law has been broken, it could then impose fines on the schools.

Mr Shephard said the schools hoped it would "rapidly see sense" and say what penalties it might impose so they could consider them.

In a letter to the Financial Times, OFT chairman Philip Collins rejected comments made in the paper's editorial column yesterday that no-one had made a profit from the information-sharing.

Mr Collins said the victims in this case were the parents and that they needed the protection of competition law as in any other sector in which they bought goods or services. They were entitled to have their fees set competitively.

"The suggestion that we have lavished resources on an investigation of no conceivable public benefit is misconceived.

"The independent schools sector educates more than 500,000 pupils," he wrote.

"We were given clear evidence in this case. We could not simply ignore it."