Clause 54 - Gifts of medical supplies and equipment

Part of Finance Bill – in a Public Bill Committee at 10:00 am on 23 May 2002.

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Photo of Mr Paul Boateng Mr Paul Boateng Financial Secretary, HM Treasury, The Financial Secretary to the Treasury 10:00, 23 May 2002

A donation will be treated as having been made for humanitarian purposes if it is genuinely appropriate to the needs of the recipient. Therefore, if there is a genuine need of recovery in the circumstances that the hon. Gentleman's describes, it will count as humanitarian. The definition is not meant to be restrictive; it is to ensure that donations are appropriate. It is designed to achieve in an enabling way exactly what the hon. Gentleman would seek to achieve in a regulatory or restrictive way. I assure him that the Inland Revenue's approach to the definition of ''humanitarian purposes'' is and will be as I have outlined.