"The only authority which I have found relevant or helpful is the decision of this Court in the British Railways Board v Customs & Excise Commissioners[1977] 1 WLR 558 . This establishes that the liability to tax depends on "the legal effect of the transaction considered in relation to the words of the statute. And this is a question of law" (per Lord Denning M.R.[1977] 1 WLR 588 at 591). Similarly, per Browne LJ..[1977] 1 WLR 588 and 595 "
"This passage shows that it was in fact answering a different question, viz "was the supply of food and beverages a necessary or incidental adjunct of the Air Transportation?" the answer to which was clearly that it was not. Until commercial pressures built up, there was no in-flight catering on this domestic services. This is not, however, the right question. The reality is that transportation by air can be of different classes or qualities. Air carriers..... could have provided and have in the past provided transportation without any in-flight catering and at the present time they can and do provide it on greatly varying scales and with different degrees of luxury ranging from plastic containers adorned by a cup of tea or coffee and a biscuit to........ a multi-course dinner served on china with high quality cutlery which would not disgrace a five star hotel. The air passenger chooses from what is on offer, and pays for, whichever degree of luxury or lack of it he requires, but the choice is between grades of air transportation, not between grades of transportation and separate grades of in-flight catering..... There is single supply and it is of air transportation. In Customs & Excise Commissioners v Wellington Private Hospital Ltd.[1997] STC 445 the issue was whether (i) the provision of drugs to in-patients in private hospitals and (ii) the supply and surgical fitting of prostheses, such as artificial hip joints or pace-makers, to such patients are zero rated for VAT. The difficulty arose because the supply of drugs or prostheses in the course of hospital or medical care would only qualify for zero rating if they retained their character as supplies of goods rather than being part and parcel of a supply of the service of medical care. Millett LJ. said at page 462: "