Hemel Hempstead MP and former Minister for Disabled People, Sir Mike Penning, is campaigning to abolish VAT on audiobooks. He has now secured a Westminster Hall debate on the subject at 3pm on Thursday, 15 June.

Audiobooks are now widely available across all genres; from business to academic, from historical to self-help. They offer a lifeline for many people with sight loss, visual impairment, dyslexia or other reading disabilities, enabling them improve their education on a par with their peers, or in some cases to continue working independently for longer and thereby contribute to the economy for longer.

The SoA has long campaigned for equal VAT-status to be applied to physical books, ebooks and audiobooks. Unlike written books, audiobooks attract VAT at 20%. In 2020, the Government scrapped VAT on e-books as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, proving that, with the political will, it can be done. It is now time to extend that to audiobooks as well.

For this debate to have an impact, we need as many MPs as possible to attend. We are calling on authors to support this campaign by sending your MP a quick email asking them to attend. You can find details of your local MP here: https://members.parliament.uk/FindYourMP

Join the campaign on Twitter using the hashtag #ZeroVATonAudiobooks

Below you can read Sir Mike Penning’s letter to the SoA, in February, regarding his submission of an Early Day Motion on zero-rate VAT for audiobooks to parliament.