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Finance Bill

Sir Michael, I would be wandering far wide of the amendment if I were to go into all my drinking habits. I do not see this as an opportunity to take the hon. Gentleman on a conducted tour of all the pubs in Wokingham, although he can rest assured that I fully support my local pubs—just as he supports his, I am sure. My argument relates to the impact on the national picture of these duty rates. I take the hon. Gentleman back to where we were. I was pointing out that the standard rate of duty on beer shows an increase of more than 10 per cent.; I appreciate that there are VAT changes as well. There is also an increase in duty per hectolitre on sparkling cider from £188.10 to £207.20, also an increase of more than 10 per cent. The duty per hectolitre on non-sparkling cider whose strength exceeds 7.5 per cent. also increases, from £43.37 to £47.77—again, a rise of more than 10 per cent. The rate of duty per hectolitre in any other case increases from £28.90 to £31.83, which is yet another increase of more than 10 per cent. It would be useful if the Minister took us through her figure work to give us some idea of what, over the period covered by the amendment, the Government have in mind under the alcohol duty escalator that they are designing. The structure of clause 11 also reminds us that there are large steps up in duty on categories of wine, depending on whether it is sparkling and on its alcoholic strength. There is a duty increase of about 40 per cent. between wines of 3.9 per cent. strength and wines of 4.1 per cent. strength. There is more than a doubling of the duty if the strength goes up from 5.4 to 5.6 per cent. For some reason, sparkling wine in the 5.5 to 8.5 per cent. bracket is slightly cheaper than the equivalent non-sparkling wine, but for sparkling wine with a strength of more than 8.5 per cent. there is an increase of some 30 per cent. in duty over the standard amount. That does not seem to be particularly tidy or fair, and it will mean different impacts on different elements in the industry. Some people feel that duty is becoming penal at the higher levels, and there is no necessary correlation between drinking too much and the strength of the drink. On some occasions, people are much more careful with stronger drinks, for obvious reasons, and one has to be a little careful about the gradations. We need some background on how these duties are tabled. Without a better explanation of why they are fair and just and related to wider social aims, it seems attractive on the surface that there should be a pause in the escalator and a proper review of its impact.