Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask His Majesty's Government whether the UK can apply any duty rate on alcoholic beverages in Northern Ireland which are below the EU minimum rate.

The same alcohol duty rates apply across the whole UK. The new alcohol duty system was implemented on 1 August 2023 and moves all alcohol to taxation by strength for the first time. The rates were set at the right level to support businesses and meet public health objectives.

We have implemented these broad reforms across the whole of the UK: taxation by strength, Draught Relief, and Small Producer Relief. This was impossible in Northern Ireland under the original Protocol. The Windsor Framework secured substantive, legally binding changes to ensure that Northern Ireland benefits from the same VAT and alcohol taxes as apply in the rest of the United Kingdom.