Monday 18 April 2011

The Charity Tribunal - off to a good start in examining the private schools issue

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Aside from a daft argument about where the tribunal members went to school (and, wrongly, where they choose to educate their children), the Charity tribunal looking at private education and charitable status has started well by tightening the scope of the examination:

These are deeply political and contentious questions and not for the Tribunal to decide.”

Therefore, he said, the scope of the hearing would be limited to the issues raised in the Attorney-General’s reference and the judicial review.

He warned the legal teams representing the parties that this meant “huge rafts” of the evidence they had already submitted were probably irrelevant and inadmissible and he did not think it would be necessary for any of them to present oral evidence.

The crux of this decision is that all the extraneous, irrelevent stuff from NCVO and the Charity Commission's leftie advisors seeking to widen to debate falls. We are left with the original judicial review brought by the schools and the careful, specific questions asked by the Attorney General.

A good start which, I hope, will conclude with a sensible settlement allowing private schools to continue providing the educational benefits for local communities that they were established to provide as charities.

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