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The Government’s budget statement delivered on 19 March 2014 included the following statement:-

“The government will legislate to provide for a controlled release of nonfinancial VAT registration data for specific purposes (principally credit scoring) and to a small number of qualified parties (like credit reference agencies) and will continue to explore options for the public release of a limited subset of VAT registration data as open data”.

BIPA is delighted to support this proposed development as it believes the availability of this data will generate significant economic benefits to the UK economy. BIPA intends to continue its engagement with government on this important initiative.

Following the publication of the Breedon Review in March 2012 BIPA has actively engaged with HMRC to show how the release of VAT registration data could allow smaller corporate and non-corporate businesses in particular to improve their access to trade credit and lending and thereby stimulate economic growth.

After on-going meetings and discussions HMRC published a consultation paper “Sharing and publishing data for public benefit” in July 2013 which BIPA and BIPA members then responded to. In December 2013 the government published details of the outcome of this consultation and announced the establishment of a trial research project to understand the potential impact of sharing or publishing VAT registration data on credit assessments and other services provided by business information providers. As a result a number of BIPA members engaged in a tightly controlled project to complete this analysis.

A full review of that project is expected to be published shortly and BIPA looks forward to its publication and to having the opportunity to work with government further as legislation is prepared in the coming months.

BIPA is of the view that this is a significant opportunity for the economy and will be looking to engage with the wider business community to ensure its beneficial implementation.

If you have any specific questions for BIPA concerning this or wish to comment further please contact BIPA