Clause 94 - VAT: children's car seats
Finance Bill
11:45 am
Mr Michael Jack (Fylde, Conservative)
Lest my criticism of the clause be misrepresented or selectively quoted outside the Committee Room, let me say at the outset that I am in favour of any measures that attempt to reduce child casualties and fatalities. If clause 94 contributes to the saving of one life that otherwise might have been taken as a result of a road vehicle accident, it will have had the right and proper effect.
I wish to examine the Government's motives for making the VAT change. I am sure that all right hon. and hon. Members know about extremely worthy causes for which value added tax should be changed. For example, along with other local Members of Parliament, I recently attended a discussion with people who were visually impaired. They asked whether there could be a lower rate of value added tax on a range of products that are of assistance to them. Those who represented the Government at that meeting explained why that was not possible. One could give other examples.
Paragraph 5.100 on page 100 of the ``Financial Statement and Budget Report'' states:
``Around 6,000 children under eight years old are killed or injured each year on Britain's roads.''
Perhaps that statement underpins some of the thinking behind clause 94. The report continues:
``It is vital that child car seats are correctly fitted''
and then makes some other observations. However, no connection is made with the Government's assertion in justifying clause 94 that in some way the position of a substantial number of those 6,000 children is affected by car seats.
I undertook some research on the subject. I pay tribute to the transport statistics section of the Department of the Environment, Transport and the Regions. I asked what data was collected to measure the impact of child car seats on the road casualty figure and how we might know whether the £5 million a year that the measure will cost is the right way to affect the number of child fatalities. I was told that no data is collected on that matter. I probed a bit further and tried to focus on cars. What do we know about cars? For example, is any data collected to establish whether front-seat or back-seat passengers are affected? General data is collected about where people sit, but it does not reveal anything about the car seat itself.
I began to wonder whether the clause was an attempt to improve the quality of child car seats. It attempts to define a child's car seat, but nothing in it differentiates between the good and the bad. In effect, the Government could unwittingly spend £5 million on value added tax reductions on children's car seats on the basis that they are the root cause of saving children's lives, but poorer quality seats would benefit as opposed to better quality ones.
What accounts for child fatalities? According to the transport statistics from DETR
``Child pedestrian fatalities account for half of all child casualties, making this the biggest child safety issue.''
Clause 94 is a well-meaning attempt to improve the safety of children in motor vehicles but, for whatever reason, the Government have driven straight past the biggest single cause of child deaths. How would we, as Members of Parliament, explain to the parents of a child who has been injured in a pedestrian incident the non-use of the £5 million that the measure costs? That money might have been used to develop strategies for child safety that might have had a beneficial effect.
To that end, I examined whether we could justify spending money in that area. In 1990, the Department of Transport produced an interesting document entitled ``Children and Roads—A Safer Way''. It described the scale and nature of child road accidents and set out a strategy to deal with them. It focused on the question of child pedestrians, pointing out evidence that properly funded education to help children develop better strategies to deal with pedestrian safety had a greater effect on child safety matters.
To justify the clause, the Treasury must produce solid facts showing that the use of the £5 million is the best way of dealing with child safety matters. I see no statistical evidence from the DETR that that would help. If a child is involved in a fatal car incident, it is because a car has got into a fatal situation not because there is something wrong with the child safety seat. The Government have produced no evidence that the money might be better directed towards car safety issues. The Government's intention was, on this occasion, well meaning but it is not backed up by any facts from the DETR and it ignores children as pedestrians, which is the situation in which the most child casualties and fatalities are caused.