Defibrillators: VAT

(asked on 18th January 2022) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 19 January 2018 to Question 123106 and the Answer of 26 October 2021 to Question 60363, if he will provide further detail on what VAT relief the Government maintains for community defibrillators and associated equipment such as batteries and casing.


Answered by
Lucy Frazer Portrait
Lucy Frazer
Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport
This question was answered on 21st January 2022

The Government maintains VAT reliefs to aid the purchase of Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs), including VAT relief on purchases made by local authorities and those made through voluntary contributions, where the AED is donated to eligible charities or the NHS. Otherwise, they attract the standard rate of VAT.

Defibrillator batteries and pads attract the standard rate of 20 per cent, which may be recoverable if purchased by a business, subject to the normal rules on VAT recovery.

Any new VAT relief would come at a cost to the exchequer and the Government has received over £50 billion worth of requests for relief from VAT since the EU referendum.

The Government however keeps all taxes under constant review.

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