VAT ON SUNCARE PRODUCTS

That this House congratulates the Skin Awareness for Everyone (SAFE) and Superdrug campaign, with the Institute of Cancer Research, to remove VAT from suncare products; recognises that skin cancer cases in the UK have more than doubled in the last 20 years with 60,000 people diagnosed and 1,700 deaths each year from melanoma; further notes that children are particularly at risk with around 80 per cent. of exposure to the sun before the age of 21 years and sunburn in childhood being a major factor in an adult's chances of getting skin cancer; and therefore calls on the Government to take the financially prudent and socially caring approach of reclassifying suncare products as essential health care items before summer 2007.