2016 The Prime Minister secured agreement with his European counterparts at the March European Council to welcome the intention of the Commission to enable increased flexibility for member states with respect to zero and reduced rates of VAT.
HMRC were ahead of themselves with the good news...
Research Briefings July 8, 2019:
In October 2015 the Government confirmed it would seek a change in EU law to allow any rate of VAT to be applied to sanitary protection, as part of a review of EU VAT rates to be undertaken by the European Commission in 2016.
In March 2016 the European Council confirmed that the Commission’s initiative would “include proposals for increased flexibility for Member States with respect to reduced rates of VAT, which would provide the option to Member States of VAT zero rating for sanitary products.”
The next month the Commission published its ‘VAT Action Plan’, including plans to modernise the EU legal framework for VAT rates, although no definitive proposals were published at the time.
The Government included provision in the Finance Bill 2016 to allow for sanitary protection to be zero-rated, once the UK had discretion to do this.
When debated in Committee Treasury Minister David Gauke said that the Government anticipated the zero rate being in place by 1 April 2017.
but as yet the Government have been unable to give a definitive date in the absence of any amendment in the EU VAT rules.
In January 2018 the European Commission finally published proposals to overhaul the EU rules on VAT rates
The current, complex list of goods and services to which reduced rates can be applied would be abolished and replaced by a new list of products.
"To safeguard public revenues, Member States will also have to ensure that the weighted average VAT rate is at least 12%"
There is no firm timetable for these proposals to be agreed
The EU have delayed until January 2022 at the earliest.
The link does say, "there is considerable uncertainty as to their relevance for the UK’s discretion in setting VAT rates, given the outcome of the EU referendum and the Government’s decision in March 2017 to trigger Article 50..." but we don't really know if we are leaving the EU yet.
researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/SN01128