An e-petition calling on the government to return the VAT on fuel payments for air ambulances is the first such petition to gain more than 100,000 signatures, making it eligible for debate in Parliament.
Following a social media campaign started by member of the public, Ken Sharpe, the e-petition Return VAT on Air Ambulance has collected 110,200 signatures.
It is the first charity-related* and the 10th overall petition to reach the 100,000 milestone. The Leader of the House of Commons has now written to the Backbench Business Committee to inform them that the petition is eligible for debate.
Sharpe launched the petition in February and reached the target 100,000 signatures in 39 days which Sharpe believes is a record for a petition started by an individual.
He found out about the issue when he attended a biker rally and told civilsociety.co.uk: “We were collecting for the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and I was speaking to one of the fundraisers who was saying that a large chunk would go back to the government in VAT.”
After researching the issue Sharpe found that while EU regulations do prevent the government from creating a zero rate of VAT, it had no problem with governments refunding the VAT paid through grant, and other countries already do this.
He publicised the e-petition to his friends on Facebook and in the biker community, asking them to share with their friends on other forums. He also joined Twitter to promote the petition.
Most local air amublance services are registered charities run by volunteers and a similar scheme to refund the VAT to lifeboat service already exists.
Sharpe has also taken the issue to his local MP Hugh Bayley (Labour), who has already written to George Osborne and tabled an early day motion which has so far been signed by 41 MPs.
Early day motions are used by MPs to draw attention to an issue or campaign and demonstrate parliamentary support. however very few of them lead to a parliamentary debate, even if it has gains a large number of signatures.
The Backbench Business Committee is responsible for scheduling debates and meets weekly to hear representations from MPS for debates in backbench time. Any subject can be considered for debate but an MP must make the case to the committee.
Charity e-petitions
The government re-launched the e-petition facility last July allowing the possibility for any issue to be debated in Parliament if a petition reached 100,000 signatures.
There are currently more than 200 live charity-related* petitions, although none of the others are close to the 100,000 mark. A petition started by Gloucestershire based cat re-homing charity is in second place with 3,563 signatures.
A petition started by a coalition of charities campaigning against welfare reforms that would impact on the support for disabled children, which was one of the first e-petitions has got 7,864 and is scheduled to close in August.
*civilsociety.co.uk used the search feature on e-petition website to narrow down the number of petitions that mention charity.
