BROMSGROVE School faces a huge fine after it was named among a string of independent schools in a fee-fixing investigation.

The Office of Fair Trading (OFT) revealed that Bromsgrove was among 50 charitable independent schools which were in breach of the Competition Act 1998, by colluding against parents to fix the level of their fees, and exchanging details of their fee increases.

The exchange of details referred to in the OFT's Statements of Objections apparently took place over three academic years between 2001-02 and 2003-4.

But the Worcester Road school, where fees stand at around £10,560, claims it was unaware that it had breached competition laws.

Headteacher Chris Edwards said: "From at least 1976 until 2000 schools were specifically exempted from the requirements of Competition Law and were freely able to exchange financial information with no restrictions at all.

"The Competition Act 1998, which came into force in March 2000, silently removed this exemption. There is no record of the removal of the exemption being referred to in Parliament, or of any consultation with the independent schools sector.

"In the event schools, including Bromsgrove School, continued to exchange financial information because they were unaware that the law had changed. In April 2003 schools were alerted to the change in the law.

"Despite the fact that the inadvertent breach of an unknown law was immediately remedied, The Office of Fair Trading has continued with its investigation and issued the so-called Statements of Objections to a number of schools, including Bromsgrove School."