Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take to protect UK retailers from an increase in goods brought into the UK without the appropriate taxes being paid.

HMRC is successfully tackling non-compliance from overseas businesses selling goods to UK consumers via online marketplaces without paying VAT. This includes measures taken to support HMRC compliance activity designed to drive compliant behaviour in overseas sellers. HMRC has now received around 43,500 applications to register for VAT by online non-EU based businesses. This compares with about 1,650 in 2015.