VATGPB9320 - Government departments and health authorities: VAT law: definition of a government Department

Under section 41(6) of the VAT Act 1994, a ‘Government department’ includes:

‘… the Scottish Administration, the Welsh Assembly Government, the National Assembly for Wales Commission, a Northern Ireland department, a Northern Ireland health and social services body, any body of persons exercising functions on behalf of a Minister of the Crown, including any part of a Government department (as defined in the foregoing) designated for the purposes of this subsection by a direction of the Treasury.’

Under section 41(7) of the Act, the following bodies shall be regarded as ‘persons exercising functions on behalf of a Minister of the Crown’:

‘(a) a health service body as defined in section 60(7) of the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990,

(b) a National Health Service trust established under Part I of that Act or the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1978,

(c) an NHS foundation trust,

(d) a Primary Care Trust,

(e) a Local Health Board,

(f) a clinical commissioning group,

(g) the Health and Social Care Information Centre,

(h) the National Health Service Commissioning Board,

(i) the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence,

(j) Health Education England (established by the Care Act 2014),

(k) the Health Research Authority (also established by that Act), [and]

(l) a strategic highways company appointed under section 1 of the Infrastructure Act 2015.’

A ‘Northern Ireland health and social services body’ is defined in section 41(8) as:

‘(a) a health and social services body as defined in Article 7(6) of the Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1991; and

(b) a Health and Social Services trust established under that Order.’