Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing VAT relief for the importation of small British flagged boats into the UK, from the EU, by operators who are unable to use their boats commercially within the EU as a result of maritime technical changes that came into force at the end of the transition period.

Relief from import VAT and any customs duty is available under the Returned Goods Relief (RGR) for goods transported or exported from the UK and re-imported within certain time limits in an unaltered state. Subject to meeting the conditions of the relief, RGR will be available to boats returning from the EU to the UK regardless of whether they were used commercially or not.

In order to obtain relief from import VAT under the RGR rules, the original exporter and the importer need to be the same person. More information on UK RGR can be found online at https://www.gov.uk/guidance/pay-less-import-duty-and-vat-when-re-importing-goods-to-the-uk-and-eu.