PRIVATE school fees could rise by up to 30 per cent after a powerful group of MPs questioned their right to charitable status.

Under the draft Charities Bill, due to be published tomorrow, private schools and hospitals will have to prove that they provide "public benefit".

Independent schools only pay around a fifth of business rates, receive tax relief from donations and do not pay gross interest on savings because they are classed as charities.

The Government hinted that independent schools should do more to act like charities by helping poorer students, sponsoring city academies or lending staff to comprehensives.

However, independent schools across the country claim to give away a total of £200m each year in scholarships.

They also say they save the Government around £1.7bn by educating 600,000 pupils and relieving the pressure on comprehensive schools.

Malvern College's bursar, David Vass, said that although the proposed Bill was not yet finalised they were taking the situation seriously.

"However, if charitable status was removed it would have implications for the school and the parents, because we rely on their funds. It would mean much higher fees," said Mr Vass, from the College Road school, in Malvern.

"We are confident we can prove we are a charity and we do work in partnership with other schools but we are looking at our practices to make sure we can support our case.

"It's something we've got to take very seriously."

The draft bill is now set to replace the 400-year-old common law definition of a charity, which only requires that private schools register with the Charity Commission.

It will include 12 criteria of "public benefit" and is expected to remove the presumption that private schools automatically act as charities.

The effect would be a huge increase in fees as private schools passed on greatly increased running costs to the parents.

Walter Jones, headteacher at the Royal Grammar School, Worcester, said the performance of independent schools should be applauded.

"The quality of education on offer at these schools should be encouraged, not attacked in this way," he said.

"Having said that, we are part of the community and make our school facilities available so if it came to a question of proving our charitable status I don't think we would have a problem."