Question to the HM Treasury:

What recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Scotland on the level of VAT applied to hospitality businesses.

This Government has provided around £400 billion of direct support to the economy during the pandemic, and as part of that it has provided £16 billion of business rates relief to the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in England.

At Autumn Budget 21, the Government announced a new temporary relief worth almost £1.7 billion for these sectors to support local high streets as they adapt and recover.

At Spring Budget 21, the Government extended the 5% temporary reduced rate of VAT for the tourism and hospitality sectors until the end of September. On 1 October 2021, a new reduced rate of VAT at 12.5% was introduced to help ease businesses back to the standard rate. This rate will end on 31 March 2022. There are no plans to extend the length of this relief again.