Question to the Scotland Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Scotland, if he will take steps to reimburse VAT payments made by Police Scotland and Scottish Fire and Rescue between 2013 and 2017.

Under the previous arrangements, Scottish services were locally-funded and were able to recover VAT under UK law, but the new bodies became ineligible to recover VAT as they were no longer locally funded. The Scottish Government was aware of this but decided to restructure in full knowledge of these consequences.

To support our brave police and fire services in Scotland, the government will legislate in Finance Bill 2017-18 to allow Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service to recover normally irrecoverable VAT which will save Police Scotland and the Scottish Fire and Rescue Service c. £40m per year. The change will come into effect in April 2018.