Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 2 November 2020 to Question 108277, what recent discussions he has had with the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs on the potential merits of applying a zero rate of VAT to period pants for the purposes reducing the use of single-use plastics.

Pursuant to the Answers of 2 November and 12 November 2020 to Questions 108277 and 113192, the scope of the new zero rate is defined by the existing five per cent reduced rate applied to women’s sanitary products. This covers the supply of any sanitary protection product that is designed and marketed solely for the absorption or collection of menstrual flow or lochia, whether disposable or re-useable.

The current relief specifically excludes articles of clothing, such as “period pants”. Such exclusions are designed to ensure that the relief is properly targeted, since difficulties in policing the scope of the relief create the potential for litigation, erosion of the tax base and a reduction in revenue.