Written questions, answers and statements

Higher Education: Electronic Publishing

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Question for Department for Education

UIN 108241, tabled on 23 October 2020

Question

Colleen Fletcher
Labour
Coventry North East
Commons

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, whether he plans to make an assessment of the effect of academic publishing industry (a) pricing and (b) licensing practices for ebooks on (i) students and (ii) universities.

Answer

Michelle Donelan
Conservative
Chippenham
Commons

Answered on

3 November 2020

The government brought forward the zero rate of VAT on e-publications from December. The extension of the zero rate of VAT has been introduced to provide consistency in approach between certain physical and digital publications. This will make e-publications more affordable for students and universities. The government keeps all taxes under review, including VAT. No assessment of the effect of the academic publishing industry’s pricing and licensing practices for ebooks is planned.

Answered by

Department for Education
Named day
Named day questions only occur in the House of Commons. The MP tabling the question specifies the date on which they should receive an answer. MPs may not table more than five named day questions on a single day.