SNP Government was warned about policeVAT

YOUR correspondent Graham C.B. Roberts seems intent on spreading misinformation about the issue of Police Scotland paying VAT.

Mr Roberts trots out the standard SNP excuse for this. He blames “the Tories” and says that no other UK police force pays VAT.

The reason for that is that Police Scotland is a national police force. Police forces elsewhere in the UK are regional forces paid for out of local funds and are therefore not liable for VAT.

It is because Police Scotland is paid for out of national (Scottish) funds that it is liable.

What Mr Roberts says about the police service of Northern Ireland is, shall we say, inaccurate. Services administered by central government in Northern Ireland are treated as local authority services. They are therefore able to reclaim VAT.

The SNP Government was repeatedly told by HM Treasury that HMRC rules, implementing EU regulations, would require a national police force to pay VAT.

But the SNP Government went ahead anyway.

The fact that Police Scotland has to pay VAT is directly and solely because the SNP Government had one objective — direct control of a national police force.

Mr Roberts tells you none of that.

Jill Stephenson.