Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on public health of freezes on spirits duty over the last seven years.

In 2016, Public Health England (PHE) published ‘The public health burden of alcohol: evidence review’ which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/the-public-health-burden-of-alcohol-evidence-review

This review looked at the impact of alcohol on the public health and the effectiveness of alcohol control policies, including taxation and price regulation. Several factors can influence alcohol’s affordability, such as income, cost-of-living and levels of alcohol duty. When looking at changes in the affordability of alcohol around the time of the duty escalator, the review found that between 2008 and 2012, the affordability of alcohol decreased substantially more than household incomes. This suggests that of all the economic factors that can influence alcohol consumption, the 2% duty escalator could have had a bigger effect than other factors. PHE continues to keep the evidence under review.