THREE independent Dorset schools are among 50 across the UK which could be fined millions of pounds after being accused of collaborating to fix fees.

Bryanston School in Blandford, Canford School in Canford Magna and Sherborne School in Sherborne, which are all charitable trusts, have been given until March to respond to the allegations made by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT).

The OFT's two-year investigation claimed the schools had taken part in a "systematic exchange of confidential information" which resulted in parents being charged higher fees than would otherwise have been the case.

The Independent Schools Council (ISC), which represents all 50 schools listed by the OFT, said the exchange of information was commonplace among charities and that, until March 2000, schools were specifically exempted from competition law and were able to exchange any information without restriction.

It claimed the exemption was silently removed - without debate or even mention in parliament and without any consultation - and that schools had continued to exchange information in ignorance that the law had changed.

Paul Speakman, bursar at Bryanston School: "If there has been a breach of law it has been inadvertent.

Bryanston is a charity, not a profit-making organisation. The governors have always set the school fees at a level that they consider is needed to provide the standard of teaching and educational facilities that parents expect from Bryanston and this they intend to continue to do."

Headmaster of Sherborne School, Simon Eliot, said: "The school has noted the OFT position as reported in the press. We have not yet had time to study the latest OFT communication to the school and will wish to take legal advice on it.

"But it goes without saying that, as a registered charity, the school has always acted and will continue to act with the best interests of parents and boys in mind; that we have nothing to hide on the subject in question and that we would never knowingly infringe any law or regulation."

Canford School declined to comment.

ISC general secretary Jonathan Shephard said: "The OFT's broad assertion that sharing information produces higher fees is highly contentious. Schools, along with care homes and other charities, are concerned to keep their fees as low as practicable. Sharing information is an effective, though no longer legal - way of doing just that."

First published: November 11, 2005