VATHLT2018 - Healthcare Provided in Prisons

Spectrum Community Health CIC (‘Spectrum’) provided various healthcare services and related goods to prisoners in England. The services were supplied to NHS England (‘NHSE’) under NHS Standard Contracts.  Spectrum delivered some services itself and sub-contracted the remainder while remaining responsible for the provision of all the services under the contracts.

 

There was a dispute over whether there was a single supply of exempt medical services under Group 7 of Schedule 9 of the VAT Act 1994. Spectrum contended that it made separate zero-rated supplies of dispensed prescription drugs (under Item 1 of Group 12 of Schedule 8 to the VAT Act 1994) and reduced rate supplies of non-prescribed sexual health products (under Item 1 of Group 8, Schedule 7A) with the result that any related input tax was recoverable.

 

The FTT disagreed with the Appellant in finding that NHSE and not the prisoners was the recipient of the supplies made. It noted that Spectrum was contractually obliged to deliver an integrated primary healthcare or health and social care service in the relevant prison or prisons that was equivalent to that provided by the NHS in the general community. The different elements all fell within the meaning of “primary healthcare” or “integrated health and social care” and those are terms that are understood and used.  It also concluded that it would be artificial to split that supply into separate supplies of the individual elements that comprise the integrated healthcare or health and social care service.

 

The matter was appealed to the Upper Tribunal (UT) who released their decision on 6 June 2024. The UT rejected the appeal and confirmed the FTT decision. .