We received a petition asking:
“We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to cut VAT on 100% fruit juices and smoothies to the minimum 5% allowed by EU law to encourage shoppers to take the healthier option and achieve their ‘five a day’.”
Details of Petition:
“We are currently charged the maximum level VAT of 17.5% on healthy fruit juices and smoothies – but for cakes, milkshakes, frozen chips and other less healthy food and drinks, the VAT rate is a big fat ZERO. Why should people pay a premium on pure fruit drinks when they don’t pay VAT on fresh, frozen or tinned fruit and vegetables? We believe that the government could use the tax system to reward those who make healthy choices in their diet - boosting fruit and vegetable intake means people are less likely to develop chronic diseases such as coronary heart disease and some cancers. So we would urge this government take the first available opportunity to change the tax system so that 100% fruit juices and smoothies are levied with a 5% VAT rate in this November’s pre-budget report.”
· Read the petition
· Petitions homepage
Read the Government’s response
To date the Government has been sparing in its use of VAT reduced rates and has only applied these where they are affordable, and provide the most effective and best-targeted support for the Government’s social objectives when compared with other policy instruments.
Dietary based taxes were considered by Derek Wanless in ‘Securing Good Health for the Whole Population’ - published in 2004. The report highlights a number of difficulties of principle and practice in any attempt to use the tax system to influence diet. Furthermore, European VAT rules require that in most cases, the same VAT rate is applied to all competing products. This limits the extent to which any new reduced rate could be targeted on the most healthy fruit drinks.
Outside the tax system, the Government is taking a number of targeted steps to encourage people to eat more healthily, and especially to protect children from unhealthy choices. These include the School Fruit and Vegetable Scheme which is part of the national ‘5-A-DAY’ programme. Over the past three years the share of children on the Scheme eating ‘5-A-DAY’ has increased from just over a quarter to just under a half. Tough new food-based standards are also now in place for school lunches and other school food. These will be complemented by nutrient-based standards for school lunches, starting in primary schools from September 2008. By 2011 the Government will have invested in excess of £600 million to support the improvement of school food in all parts of the school day.
Furthermore, the Food Standards Agency has worked with the food industry to introduce front of pack labelling - with the aim of making it simpler for families to make healthier food choices. The Government has also worked with Ofcom and the Advertising Standards Authority on the introduction of tough new restrictions to significantly reduce the promotion to children of foods high in fat, salt and sugar, and these restrictions are already having an impact.
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