In Health Group SA Public Body and Hospital v Her Majesty's Revenue & Customs

Facts

The appellant, In Health Group SA, is a company incorporated in Luxembourg which carries on business in the UK as the representative member of a VAT group. Its subsidiary, Lister In Health Limited, provides diagnostic imaging services, principally by means of magnetic resonance imaging scanners, through both mobile and static units; only static units were in issue. The dispute concerned Lister's provision of MRI-related services to NHS trusts, the parties proceeding on the basis of a sample agreement between Lister and Sandwell Health Care NHS Trust, accepted as typical of the arrangements. Under that agreement Lister was to develop, manage and operate a static MRI scanner facility on the trust's premises, making patient appointments, carrying out the scans through radiographers it employed, and supplying one set of films; the trust referred its patients, delivered them to the unit, supplied its own radiologists to report on the scans, and paid a fee per patient. By a letter dated 5 March 2003, the Commissioners ruled that the supplies in question were exempt rather than standard-rated. The appellant, contending that what it supplied was not medical care but an input used by the trust in its own provision of health care, appealed to the VAT and Duties Tribunal.