Question to the Department for Exiting the European Union :

To ask the Secretary of State for Exiting the European Union, whether his Department has conducted an impact assessment of the potential effects on businesses in (a) the North East and (b) the UK of leaving the EU VAT area.

We are committed to getting the best possible deal for the United Kingdom - a deal that works for all parts of the UK, including the North East. We continue to engage with businesses and industry bodies from all sectors of the economy, and all regions and nations of the UK, in order to inform our negotiations.

The Government’s recent White Paper on the future relationship between the United Kingdom and the European Union proposes the application of common cross-border process and procedures on VAT and excise, along with administrative cooperation and information exchange. The UK will not be a part of the EU single VAT area, but these common processes would facilitate payments and underpin risk-based enforcement, keeping tax and duty processes as close as possible to what they are currently.

The Government is undertaking a wide range of ongoing analysis in support of our EU exit negotiations and preparations. This analysis helps define our future partnership with the EU, and informs our understanding of how EU exit will affect the UK’s domestic policies and frameworks. Ministers have a specific responsibility, which Parliament has endorsed, not to release information that would reveal our negotiating position and so the Government will not provide an ongoing commentary on internal analytical work.