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Written question asked by Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat) on Wednesday, 26 November 2025, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 1 December 2025. It was answered by Dan Tomlinson (Labour) on Thursday, 4 December 2025 on behalf of the Treasury.

Spirits: Excise Duties

Question

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what data she holds on spirits duty revenue generated from pubs in (a) rural areas and (b) urban areas.

Answer

Alcohol duty is paid by producers, and is therefore not typically paid directly by pubs. Further, according to estimates derived from sales data collected on behalf of the Office for National Statistics, only around 15% of spirits are consumed on-trade.

At Autumn Budget 2025 the Chancellor confirmed that alcohol duty will be uprated on 1 February 2026 to maintain its current real-terms value.

An assessment of the impacts of decisions taken by the Chancellor at each Budget is published within the relevant Tax Impact and Information Note (TIIN). The TIIN for the inflation-linked uprating announced at the most recent Budget is available here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/alcohol-duty-rates-change/alcohol-duty-uprating#summary-of-impacts

There is significant variation in alcohol taxation policy amongst European countries. The World Health Organization recently published a comparison of alcohol taxes across the WHO European Region, which can be found here: https://www.who.int/europe/publications/i/item/9789289061940.

HMRC does not hold data on alcohol duty paid on alcohol sold in pubs.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
94644
Session
2024-26
Grouped for answer
Yes
Subjects
Excise duties Spirits
Contains statistics
Yes
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk