Scottish Labour joins calls for police and fire service to be exempt from VAT

Labour have backed Scottish Government calls for the Treasury to scrap police and fire service VAT bills.

The single Scottish police and fire services became liable for the tax since merging from regional into national organisations, and Kezia Dugdale said it is a mess of the SNP's making''.

But ahead of the Budget this week, the Scottish Labour leader has urged Chancellor Philip Hammond to reverse the anomaly that requires the services to pay VAT.

The Scottish Government has called for the Treasury to extend the VAT exemption as it has for ''a number of other UK bodies'', while the Liberal Democrats have proposed making Police Scotland a single shared local government body rather than a non-departmental public body, so it can remain a single force and take advantage of VAT exemptions.

Police Scotland is said to have a #35 million annual VAT bill amid other budget pressures.

Ms Dugdale said: This is a mess of the SNP's making. The Scottish Government was fully aware of this consequence prior to centralising the services and chose to proceed regardless.

But I remain disappointed by the Tories' consistent failure to respond positively to Labour's calls to apply an exemption.

I urge Philip Hammond to adopt a more constructive approach than (predecessor) George Osborne and use the forthcoming Budget and Finance Bill to apply an exemption.

This would help to lift some of the budget pressures facing Police Scotland.

We have officers back-filling roles rather than being in our communities keeping them safe.

We need to give hardworking and dedicated officers and staff the support and resources they need, rather than having a police force constantly trying to balance the books.''