help get vat off kids suncream superdrug

Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP
The Treasury
1 Horseguards Road
London SW1



Dear Gordon

As you will be aware the change in law regarding VAT charged on condoms and the morning after pill comes into effect on 1st July. We are currently working on our SAFE @ Superdrug campaign with the Institute of Cancer Research and this has highlighted yet another anomaly in the current VAT legislation.

A high SPF is a real essential for keeping Britons safe in the sun in the summer. At a time when the number of cases of skin cancer in the UK has more than doubled in the last 20 years we feel that sun care should be re-classed as an essential health care item for summer 2007. In the UK approximately 1,700 people die from melanoma each year and 60,000 people are diagnosed with new cases each year. Children are especially at risk, it is estimated that we get 80 per cent of our exposure to the sun before the age of 21, and sun-burn in childhood has a real impact on an adult's chance of being diagnosed with skin cancer.

On 1st July will be cutting the VAT off our own label children's sun protection permanently, and launching our kids’ Sun Tax petition in our stores and online to get Superdrug customers behind making the change.

I hope you will appreciate the seriousness of this issue and we can expect a reduction in the VAT rating of sun protection in your next budget.



Yours sincerely



Jeff Wemyss
Director of Beauty, Superdrug

http://www.superdrug.com/suntaxletter.php