Three Scottish private schools including Tony Blair’s alma mater Fettes College, have been judged by the charity regulator to have changed their activities enough that they now pass the test for charitable status.

Fettes and St George’s School for Girls were both directed by the regulator to widen access to their services to poor people.  Each are now offering sufficient bursaries that OSCR deemed they have met the charity test.

The third school to have now passed the test is the International School of Aberdeen.  This case was not concerned with bursaries, as OSCR considered the school to be providing enough of these, but with the potential for private benefit to employers in the oil industry – particularly those that are shareholders in the premises from which the school operates.

However, upon further investigation, OSCR concluded that any private benefit was necessary and incidental to the public benefit provided by the school, and so the International School of Aberdeen could continue to have charitable status. Click here for the full report on this school.

OSCR is still assessing nine more fee-charging schools. It recently issued directions to Wellington School (Ayr) and Loretto School, instructing them to widen access to the benefit they provide.

The ongoing reviews are scheduled to be completed by the summer of 2014, and this will mean that all 40 of the country’s independent schools will have been assessed.