ISC response to The Times article about overseas satellite colleges

The ISC chief executive said: “Schools follow guidance from the Charity Commission, in the same way as other charities with trading subsidiaries, and use surplus funds from overseas campuses to maximise their public benefit activity.

“In the case of independent schools with charitable status, funding generated through gift aid is used to provide life-changing opportunities for children by widening access through bursaries, delivering partnership projects with state schools, carrying out community outreach projects, and more besides.

“Like all charities, these schools publish audited accounts in the public domain every year, for full transparency.

“Independent schools contribute £13.7 billion to the UK economy every year, generating £4.1 billion of annual tax revenues and supporting 303,000 jobs, as well as saving the taxpayer £3.5 billion a year from students not being in state education.”

Notes to editors

Charity Commission guidance note CC35 outlines the circumstances in which a charity must use a trading subsidiary and provides full explanations regarding tax issues and the payment of surpluses to the parent charity via gift aid.