Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to tackle period poverty.

This Government takes the issue of period poverty very seriously and we are already taking steps to ensure that period products are available and affordable for those most in need. Since January 2020, a Department for Education scheme provides free period products in schools and 16 to 19 education institutions in England. 97% of secondary schools, 92% of post 16 organisations and 68% of primary schools have made at least one order since the scheme began in January 2020.

In March 2019 NHS England announced that it would offer period products to every hospital patient who needs them, including long-term in-patients. As part of our wider strategy to make period products affordable and available for all women, we have also made it clear that a zero rate of Value Added Tax (VAT) applies to period products now that the United Kingdom has left the European Union. These products are essential, so it is right that there is now no VAT charge.