Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what discussions he has had with the Chancellor of the Exchequer on reducing the level of (a) duty on drinks and (b) VAT on food in pubs and restaurants to help support the recovery of those businesses from the covid-19 outbreak.

All alcohol duties will be frozen across the board for the second year running saving drinkers £1.7 billion.

At the Budget we extended the 5 per cent reduced rate of VAT for a further six months until the end of September. Even then, the rate will only increase to 12.5 per cent for a further 6 months and will not return to the normal 20 per cent rate until April 2022. That means, across last year and this, a tax cut of over £7 billion.