Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of the number of firms in (a) England, (b) Scotland, (c) Wales and (d) Northern Ireland that would be subject to upfront VAT for imports from the EU in the event that the UK is no longer a member of the EU VAT area.

The Government recognises the importance of VAT accounting treatment to business, and is exploring options to mitigate any cash-flow impacts for business as a result of potential changes following EU exit. The number of businesses importing goods from the EU, broken down by region, is set out in table 4 of HMRC’s quarterly Trade Statistics publication:

https://www.uktradeinfo.com/Statistics/RTS/RTS%20Releases/RTS_Q3_2017.xls