Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether he has made an assessment of the potential merits of introducing a reduced rate of duty for spirits produced by smaller distillers and producers.

Under EU law a reduced rate of spirit duty can be applied to producers who make less than 1,000 litres of product a year.

The government is not minded to introduce such a relief as there is no compelling case to do so at this time given the risk of illicit production and excise duty fraud.