TC09497 - [2025] UKFTT 00460 (TC)

Fecha: 08-Abr-2025

What is GM’s product?

What is GM’s product?

24.

We were given a considerable amount of written and oral evidence about what exactly GM's product was. Some of the detail is set out below, but summarising and aggregating the evidence from all three of the GM witnesses we found that:

(1)

The GM product is an online offering;

(2)

It does not lead to any particular qualifications.

(3)

The pupils using it can drop in and out of the offering (unlike the way they might have to proceed if following a course leading to a qualification);

(4)

The product includes many hundreds of available diagnostic tests that test students’ knowledge of the principles that will be taught on the various subjects relevant to age profile of the pupils undertaking the diagnostic tests;

(5)

The product also includes a number of short videos, although the number of videos is small in comparison to the number of diagnostic tests. These videos provide tutoring;

(6)

The videos were described as providing “remedial” teaching but we did not think that this was a helpful adjective. The videos provide teaching and the only sense in which the teaching is “remedial” is that the pupil might seek out the video upon encountering a question to which they did not know the right answer. Possibly the word “remedial” might be significant in that it implies some users of ConquerMaths might be using it for revision purposes in the way that a person who has been studying for an exam might do a past paper and then do remedial work to fill gaps that were shown. This would perhaps tend to show ConquerMaths was a revision aid;

(7)

The average user spends 75 minutes on diagnostic tests compared to 5 minutes on videos;

(8)

GM’s witnesses described the product as diagnostic assessments, formative assessments, and summative assessments; and

(9)

In addition to online diagnostic tests, the product includes worksheets in an exam format. Pupils are encouraged to complete these offline and then feed the results into the system.

25.

GM argued that their product was an assessment led resource which enabled a pupil’s level of attainment, and any shortcomings, to be identified so that the pupil could then get any necessary teaching from other sources (for example the ConquerMaths remedial videos, other online sources of teaching or their school teacher or private tutor). On that basis GM argued that their product was exempt as a form of “examination service” within Item 3(b) of Group 6.

26.

HMRC argued that GM‘s supplies are not exempt examination services on the basis the supply is of an online learning or teaching product. HMRC asserted that it is a supply of educational services rather than an examination service.

27.

One perhaps noteworthy point is that none of the evidence we were given suggested ConquerMaths was a form of examination. We considered this was unhelpful to GM's argument that ConquerMaths was a supply of examination services since the phrase “examination services” is the one used in Item 3.

28.

Because the word “assessments” is used in Note 4 we have taken care in this judgment when we describe ConquerMaths generally to avoid the use of that word and instead to use the neutral term “diagnostic tests” (which happens to be the term used by GM themselves on the web page referred to at [40]). The GM witnesses used the word “assessments” to describe ConquerMaths; however, one of the issues we had to consider was the meaning of the word “assessments” in Note 4 so it was preferable to avoid using that word when we describe ConquerMaths since the meaning of that word needed to be considered independently of establishing the facts about what ConquerMaths is. Nothing should be read one way or the other into our use of a neutral term to describe ConquerMaths.