Topical Questions

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Treasury – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 27 February 2018.

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Photo of Philip Hammond Philip Hammond The Chancellor of the Exchequer 12:00, 27 February 2018

My right hon. Friend is nothing if not persistent and consistent. I cannot remember how many times he has raised this issue. There have been numerous requests for new VAT reliefs since the referendum, some of which are currently not permitted under EU law. We have calculated that if we were to grant all the VAT relief requests that we have received, that would come to more than £38 billion a year. On VAT and tourism, the Government have received representations on this issue, and we are looking again at the case for change.[This section has been corrected on 1 March 2018, column 6MC — read correction] We have issued a call for evidence on the impact of VAT and air passenger duty on tourism in Northern Ireland, and we will certainly keep this issue under careful review.