Welsh Government to raise call to remove VAT from suncream with Treasury again

The Welsh Government will ask the UK Treasury to consider removing VAT from suncream again, following Sir Keir Starmer’s recent cabinet reshuffle.

Earlier in the year, Plaid Cymru’s Sioned Williams wrote to the Cabinet Secretary for Health, Jeremy Miles, regarding preventative measures aimed at reducing the high rates of skin cancer.

One of those measures was the removal of VAT on sunsceam – which is currently seen as a cosmetic product and thus subject to VAT.

Skin cancer is the most common form of cancer in Wales.

Cost

It can be prevented either by staying out of the sun – or by regularly applying a high factor suncream.

However, cost is often a barrier to this being used.

Mr Miles agreed to ask the Finance Secretary, Mark Drakeford, to raise the issue of sunscreen VAT with the UK Government.

But, Treasury officials later confirmed that they have no plans to change VAT in this area.

In the Senedd on Wednesday (September 17), Mr Drakeford stated he would be “willing to raise the point” again, given recent changes to personnel in the Treasury.

The Finance Secretary said: “The response that we’ve had so far is that they have no plans to change VAT in this area.

“They provide a number of reasons why that remains the case, in their view.

“But a team of new ministers are now occupying the Treasury; there are meetings in the diary for me to meet them, and I’m willing to raise the point that Sioned Williams has raised this afternoon again, when I do have an opportunity to do so in those meetings.”

‘Pressure’

Ms Williams said: “Skin cancer is almost entirely preventable, and yet it currently accounts for almost half of all cancers in Wales – just think of the cost, not only to our health service in terms of diagnosis and treatment, but also the worry and stress that a cancer diagnosis can bring to an individual and their loved ones.

“Welsh Government should be looking at all the ways they can help prevent skin cancer, and putting pressure on their Labour partners in Westminster to make sunscreen more affordable by removing VAT is one way to do this.

“This isn’t a ‘luxury’ item, and yet the high cost is stopping some people from practicing good skin safety – trying to make it go further by not applying enough, not regularly enough, or not at all.

“While it’s disappointing that UK Government initially said ‘no’ to Welsh Government, I’m pleased to have secured a commitment for them to raise the point again – it really could be life-saving.”