Treasury analysing whether removal of tampon tax has lowered prices

theguardian.com:

The Treasury is analysing whether the removal of the “tampon tax” – trumpeted last week by Rishi Sunak as one of the benefits of Brexit – has helped lower prices at all, amid concerns the saving is not being passed on by retailers to women.

Responding to a written question from Labour MP Ruth Cadbury, the government said a tax reduction was able to “contribute to the conditions for price reductions” and it was “looking into whether this important zero-rating is being passed on by retailers to women as intended”.

Sunak scrapped the 5% VAT rate on tampons when he was chancellor, with the change kicking in on 1 January 2021. Last year The Guardian reported stores were thought to have banked £10m a year from the tax change.

A new snapshot for the last 12 months shows prices have risen again, in many cases by much more than the current 10% rate of inflation.

A pack of 20 supermarket own-label tampons is now £1.16, up from 91p a year ago. This works out as a 27% increase, based on the average price across Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda and Morrisons, according to the data firm Assosia. Meanwhile, at £2.38 for a pack of 18, a box of Tampax Compak Super Plus tampons costs 35p, 17% more than in May 2022.

When it comes to sanitary towels, a pack of eight to 10 Bodyform Ultra Goodnight pads costs 21p – or 16% – more at £1.51, while a 14-pack of Always Sensitive is up by 3p at 98p. Some products are cheaper. The price of a 14-pack of supermarket own-label ultra regular pads is down by 3p to 63p.

Laura Coryton, who started the Stop Taxing Periods campaign that helped bring about the policy change, said the 300,000 people who signed her petition to end tampon tax “wanted to make period products more accessible”. “They didn’t want to make