Air Ambulance fuel costs

A petition was put forward earlier this year on the Downing Street website, and received the necessary 100,000 signatures before the time limit ran out on 19th February, asking the government to look at exempting the Air ambulance from fuel tax in the same way as the lifeboat service.

The petition reads as follows:

"The Air Ambulance Service is forced to meet rising fuel prices year on year including VAT.

The Air Ambulance Service have saved successive governments millions and millions of pounds funded by charitable donations given by the general public to run what has proven to be an essential service.

Whilst the Lifeboat Service has been exempt from VAT on fuel costs since 1977, a similar privilege has not been afforded to the Air Ambulance Service;

We call on the government to have an urgent review of this situation and in doing so,
We call on the government to return in the form of grants to Air Ambulance Service providers all the future VAT which the Treasury collects from them so that the Air Ambulance Service is in practice exempt from paying VAT in the same way as the Lifeboat Service."

So far this has had 115,275 signatures.


The Leader of the House of Commons has written to the Backbench Business Committee, who are responsible for the scheduling of debates on e-petitions, informing them that the petition has reached 100,000 signatures, which means it can be considered for debate.

The Backbench Business Committee meets weekly to hear representations from MPs for debates in backbench time. The Committee can consider any subject for debate, including those raised in e-petitions, but an MP must make the case for their consideration. More information about the Committee is available on its website http://www.parliament.uk/bbcom

A further response from the Government on this e-petition will be published in due course.

Comments

Jim said…
I was over the moon when this petition reached its 100,000 target on 20th March.

It is one of the fastest growing petitions ever on the website which is encouraging.

Normally 500 sigs per day is big league stuff for these petitions, this one was attracting around 9,000 per day at its peak.

If you have not signed yet then please do so, its worth showing just how many people support this action, even if it has hit the target.
7:21 pm
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