Sherborne School: Difference between revisions

In 2005, Sherborne School was one of 50 of the country's leading independent schools that were found guilty of running an illegal price-fixing cartel, which had allowed them to drive up fees for thousands of parents.<ref>{{cite news| url=http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/article588559.ece | work=The Times | location=London | title=Independent schools face huge fines over cartel to fix fees | first=Tony | last=Halpin | date=10 November 2005 | accessdate=23 May 2010}}</ref> Each school was required to pay a nominal penalty of £10,000. All schools involved in the scandal agreed to make ex-gratia payments, totalling £3&nbsp;million, into a trust. The trust was designed to benefit pupils who attended the schools during the period in respect of which fee information was shared.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.oft.gov.uk/news/press/2006/182-06 |title=OFT names further trustees as part of the independent schools settlement - The Office of Fair Trading |publisher=Oft.gov.uk |date= |accessdate=17 February 2013}}</ref> However, Jean Scott, the head of the Independent Schools Council, said that independent schools had always been exempt from anti-cartel rules applied to business, were following a long-established procedure in sharing the information with each other, and were unaware of the change to the law (on which they had not been consulted). She wrote to John Vickers, the OFT director-general, saying, "They are not a group of businessmen meeting behind closed doors to fix the price of their products to the disadvantage of the consumer. They are schools that have quite openly continued to follow a long-established practice because they were unaware that the law had changed."<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/1455730/Private-schools-send-papers-to-fee-fixing-inquiry.html |title=Private schools send papers to fee-fixing inquiry |newspaper=The Daily Telegraph |location=London |date=3 January 2004 |publisher=telegraph.co.uk |accessdate=17 February 2013}}</ref>