Question to the Department for Business and Trade:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business and Trade, if her Department will make an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a minimum time period after which gift cards can expire.

Whilst there is no legal minimum term for the validity of gift cards, the Government has worked with the UK Gift Card & Voucher Association (GCVA) to encourage businesses to use expiry dates of at least two years and has made it clear that retailers should be transparent about the terms and conditions offered to consumers including card expiry dates.

We asked the Law Commission to consider the issue of gift card and voucher expiry terms and they concluded that there was not a need to introduce additional measures in this area.