Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of making items of personal protective equipment exempt from VAT (a) in the short term to support businesses in protecting staff and customers as covid-19 lockdown restrictions are eased and (b) permanently to support health spending over the longer term.

A temporary zero-rate of VAT applies to sales of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for protection from infection from 1 May 2020 until 31 July 2020. The temporary relief has been introduced as an urgent response to the coronavirus emergency. Its main objective is to relieve businesses, particularly in the healthcare and residential care sectors, of the burden of tax on essential infection protection equipment needed to deal with the emergency.

All taxes are kept under review and Government will reassess the situation in the future.