Call to scrap VAT on condoms in United Kingdom Source Oct 6 2004, Western Mail

TAX on over-the-counter contraceptives, such as condoms and the morning-after pill, should be abolished in efforts to cut unwanted pregnancies and sexually transmitted infections, Government advisers said yesterday.

The Independent Advisory Group for Sexual Health and HIV said that VAT on all such contraceptives should be axed in order to promote consistent use.

In its first annual report, the group said the cost of contraceptives was "high and prohibitively expensive" for many people.

In particular, it said, the cost of condoms was much higher in the UK than other European countries and it called on the Government to increase access to free condoms in the NHS.

The experts made 29 recommendations on sexual health, calling for ministers to move it up the agenda to address soaring rates of STIs, high levels of teenage pregnancy and to reduce regional variations in abortion provision.

In 2003 there were more than 2m visits made to the UK's genitourinary medicine clinics.

Baroness Gould, the group's chairwoman, said it was time to recognise that good education, services and support would improve the nation's sexual health and impact on the public's overall physical and mental well-being.

"It's time to de-stigmatise sexual health and properly deal with what is and will continue to be a very real consideration for public health," Baroness Gould said.