Leading charities, trade group, back campaign to scrap defibrillator tax

London, 23rd October 2024: Some of the UK’s leading first aid and cardiovascular charities, including the British Heart Foundation, St John Ambulance, British Red Cross, and Resuscitation Council UK, have joined the British Healthcare Trades Association (BHTA), and their campaign to Scrap the Heart Restart Tax and remove VAT from all defibrillator purchases.

The BHTA and the campaigns Ambassador, Jack Hurley who at 19-years-old suffered a cardiac arrest and was saved by a defibrillator, are today handing in a personal plea to No 10 demanding that VAT be removed from all defibrillator purchases in the upcoming budget. They are also visiting Parliament to ensure that MPs and Peers are also aware that these life-saving medical devices are being unfairly taxed.

If VAT were removed from these purchases, then for every 5 defibs there are now, we’d have 6 instead. Put simply, this is a policy that could help save more lives like Jack. Out of hospital cardiac arrest survival is at a horrific 8% in the UK, but use of a defib within the first 3-5 minutes of an attack rockets survival to 70%.

The average person in the UK is over 700m from a defibrillator, equating to a nearly 20-minute roundtrip. And that’s only if the closest defibrillator is accessible at the time of the cardiac arrest.

If more organisations such as local football clubs and small businesses were able to more affordably purchase a defib, more people up and down the country would have access to one of these incredible devices. Unfortunately, VAT added to defibrillators is sometimes between £200-£500 extra per device. Purchasing a defibrillator is a financial burden many organisations just can’t bear.

The Government must listen to the chorus of calls from charities, survivors like Jack, the industry and their representatives like the BHTA, and they must Scrap the Heart Restart Tax.