Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what discussions he has had with his Department on the public health benefits of (a) setting alcohol duty at a level that covers the estimated costs of alcohol to society and (b) introducing scaled taxation for alcohol whereby stronger alcohol products are taxed more per unit of alcohol than lower strength products.

Protecting against alcohol-related harms remains a key objective of the alcohol duty system. However, it is not the sole consideration and any duty changes must be assessed within the wider economic and business context.

The Treasury is considering the merits of various taxation methods as part of its alcohol duty review. We remain in the early stages of analysis and further updates will be provided in due course.