Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential merits of increasing draft duty relief for (a) consumers, (b) pubs and (c) breweries in Harpenden and Berkhamsted constituency.

The Chancellor’s draught rate cut at Autumn Budget 2024 applied to approximately 60% of the alcoholic drinks sold in pubs. This took a penny of duty off a typical strength pint at a cost to the Exchequer of over £85m a year.  Draught beer and cider now pay 13.9% less in duty than their packaged equivalents – an increase of over 50% on the previous draught discount of 9.2%.

The Chancellor makes decisions on tax policy at fiscal events. The Government welcomes representations from the beer and pub sectors in advance of the Budget.