Drugs: VAT
2026-05-31 · Treasury · 5406 · Official question
Question
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate her Department has made of how much money it would expect to gain through the application of VAT to compassionate medicine programmes.
Answer
Under UK VAT law, some transactions where no money changes hands are treated as if a supply has been made - these are called deemed supplies. This is to keep the system fair if a business has reclaimed VAT on costs. Whether VAT applies to medicines or tre...