Scottish Affairs Committee

Wednesday 21st October 2026

(began 1 day, 14 hours ago)

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None Portrait Speaker 1
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Thank you.
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None Portrait Speaker 3
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Thank you very much, chair. And I should start by saying thank you very much for inviting us here today and giving us a chance to set out the position of the industry. You've received our written comments, but maybe it's useful if I just set out a bit. The the current overview of the opportunities and challenges. We're the UK's biggest food and drink export and. And a globally traded commodity to 160 markets around the world. We export 90% of everything we produce, and the UK is our fourth largest market by by value. And this means that we're dependent on global trade conditions and prevailing issues in any one of those 160 markets at any at any one time.



































































































































 It's generally positive that we are part of Scotland's soft power. I mean, we are of Scotland, we're made in Scotland and its communities and we depend on them and hopefully we aim to give back to those communities which are our home base. We also should note, though, that the the fact that we are so well known as a as a symbol of Scotland can bring problems for us when there are international trade disputes and we can find ourselves on the end of retaliatory action when these disputes, which do not have anything specifically to do to us.























































































































 I just wanted to flag that potential negative collateral damage, which can come up from trade disputes occur. We are also very much local industry. Our concentration is a geographical indicator. We have to be produced in Scotland. All Scotch whisky has to be produced in Scotland and that means that we we bring jobs and investment, but we're also affected by the prevailing economic conditions and policies of our home governments in terms of productions and cost of doing business. And I think we'll come on to that a bit later. The sector adds over £7 billion to the UK economy and supports over 65,000 jobs across the country, while our Scotch whisky exports are worth over £5 billion a year .

































































































The past six years, starting with Covid, have seen us face a series of challenging circumstances both domestically and internationally, with rising costs for business and consumers continuing to impact not just the producers, but the supply chain and the communities that rely on them from from the farmers who produce the grain through to the, the hospitality industry and, and obviously tourism. And one of the tourism is another, I would say another sort of plus of our global reputation, that global soft power and bringing people into Scotland to spend their, their money here. And this has seen the , the industry having to very resilient.





















































































It is a very resilient industry. But these circumstances, this such volatility have required us to take mitigating steps such as production pauses, restructuring and closure of sites or or visitor centres. So we've had to adapt to this , this challenging circumstances. More recently, over the past few months, there have been some positive international trade developments which we've welcomed and we've welcomed the support we've received from from government, including tariffs on exports to China being reduced, the UK India free trade agreement coming into force and US tariffs on Scotch whisky being lifted. And these are all going to provide boosts to the industry over the longer term.





































































 But there will take time for them to be realised. And even if we are looking at markets such as the US, for example, you have prevailing market conditions which even with tariffs off, will still be a challenge. And with free trade agreements there will be bumps on the way. As we we know across the world you may have a free trade agreement, but then the implementation is is an ongoing ongoing process. So we've seen these tentative gains. And those are encouraging, showing the potential for us to return to sustainable growth over the long term. This long term curve that we've we've seen with Scotch being a.

















































 Product which is attractive to countries as they grow in their disposable income. And we want to return to that growth, that growth curve across across the globe. But the domestic challenges in our production base remain. We're soon be looking at the the UK budget and spirits are taxed disproportionately more than other drinks categories. And that affects Scotland as it produces 70% of all spirits disproportionately as well. The cost of of production and in particular energy and doing business are continuing to rise and the burden of regulation is increasing. Alongside unevidenced negative narratives around spirits like Scotch whisky.



























 So if you talk to our members, they will say the cumulative burden is still a worrisome one. So where that leaves us, I would say, is that we're at a pivotal sort of a hinge moment, and we have the potential. We have a great product. We have a resilient industry. We are known across the globe, but we can't take success for granted. So we need domestic support to see the industry through this current period and ensure that distillers are in a position to take advantage of these opportunities abroad. We are optimistic about the the industry's future for whatever the reasons I've said, but there is no guarantee.











 So we believe that support at home will deliver regional growth, benefit our local communities and boost revenue generation. And we've got a review of the alcohol duty system currently underway . Addressing the domestic tax paid by spirits like Scotch whisky will be a key first step, and this will give producers confidence to invest in growth at home and abroad. So that's what I would kind of set out as the the starting the starting position.
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None Portrait Speaker 3
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I can start off and then and then pass to, to my right. What, what we saw over the Covid period. And if it's useful for me just to go through the dynamic was we saw spikes in, in, in consumption and spikes in, in export, because what happened was you, as you know, you had lockdowns where people couldn't go out and across the world, they couldn't consume on, on trade premises, bars and, and restaurants were closed as, as exporting, as an exporting industry with a complex logistic chain. A lot of the you recall a lot of the containers were not where they they needed to be.





























So there was a there was a business imperative to ship as much stock out to, to, to be near the consumers in various countries around the world. And then we saw gradual opening, opening up. So those last few years have seen a combination of the international trade environment being complicated inventory, a lot of inventory in certain countries, which is being worked through. And, and that has taken some time to, to come through. We have seen a, a growth, a small growth in the first six months of, of, of this year in terms of both value and volume.

















 And so we're always working with economic cycles as well. I think what we saw over the past six years is, is volatility year on year. But now we've got if you look at that long term growth curve, we've got the potential now to come back to that, which is why I come back to the point I made before that this is this is a key moment. It's a very delicate moment. But if we get that right support, especially for some of our smaller members to push on, we can then go back and see this, this growth, continue to consolidate and get back to that that that curve, which we've seen over previous years.

I don't know if you want to.
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None Portrait Speaker 1
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Just add chair, that it's been an extraordinary decade in many ways for the Scottish whisky industry, having to deal with a multitude of external factors. We, of course, had the the impacts of Brexit through the transition period, a particular challenge for small member companies. And then we went into a period of the first round of US tariffs connected to the Airbus-boeing dispute from 2019 to 2021. We then went into the pandemic. We then went into the inflationary cost pressures and the energy cost pressures that resulted from the pandemic. Then we went into US tariffs too, which were thankfully now removed from that period, does show the the broad resilience of the industry.



















 If you go back to 2019, there were £4.9 billion of global Scotch whisky exports that rose to 6.2 during the pandemic because of a kind of supercycle connected to people staying at home and people using their spirit choice, including in the Scotch whisky category that fell back to 5.3. As you pointed out, chair, last year, in the first half of 2026, we have seen that growth that Mark spoke about, up by 3% by value, up by about 6% by by volume so far in 2026. We get the full figures in February next year.







 So that does show you there is growth in the world marketplace, but we are having to deal continually with those pressures that are coming to the industry. And then the our member companies are having then to react in various ways to that changing market that we've seen over the last decade.
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None Portrait Speaker 1
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I'm glad you asked the question, because I think there's been quite a lot of misconceptions about why the Scottish whisky industry has taken forward an appeal to the English whisky GI. So I'm happy to to kind of clarify it for the for the committee. How you've set it out is is absolutely right. The Scottish whisky industry for a couple of generations has built the category of of single malt. It's not really a category which existed before the 1960s and 1970s. And the equity which is now within that category has really been derived from Scotch whisky producers putting in that effort over the last few decades.











































































 Essentially, single malt Scotch whisky means that malted barley is brought into a distillery. It is mashed, fermented and distilled on that single site, and that is well understood by consumers around the world. The difference with the now approved English whisky GI, which we are currently appealing through the first tier tribunal, is that you would not have to mash and ferment on that single site. You could only you could distill on that site, and it would still be called Single malt English whisky. So the practical impact of that is that you could have wash brought in from a brewery anywhere in the country, distilled, for example, in Cornwall, and you could call it Cornish single malt.





























































 Now, we think that the connection with place, the connection with that single site, is vital to that category and is something that should be protected. The other thing I should say is we didn't want to get to this place of having to appeal this decision. If I take the committee back to a couple of years ago, at the end of 2024, the SWA was actively supporting the English Whisky Guild in taking forward the GI. We are a big supporter of GIS around the world, as you will know, and we do want to see an English whisky GI, but we.















































 Throughout that process, we always made clear our stipulation that we had significant concerns around the definition within that GI around single malt, and that we wanted that to be clarified and tightened up before it went to the approval stage. Unfortunately, it went to the opposition period, the Defra announced in February of 2025, and then we went through a period of offering up some compromises that we thought might allow the GI to go ahead, but to protect that category of single malt that included those sites in England that have multi-site production, bringing the wash in and then distilling it on a single site that would allow that that product to be called English malt whisky rather than English single malt whisky.

































 We thought that was a reasonable compromise, but that was rejected by the English Whisky Guild. So we are now in a position, having had the GI approved by Defra to appeal that decision, because we do think the equity of the single malt category built up by Scottish whisky is so important worldwide. Just to finish on this, we are now in a position where we had in the in the Commons in March of 2025, where the UK government set out that it would not be watering down the definition of single malt. You'll remember that it was then the Chief Secretary to the Treasury who made the comment at the despatch box.



















 We are now in the situation, really, where a consumer could have three different products on the shelf, all named single malt. You'd have single malt Scotch whisky produced on a single site. By traditional practice, understood by consumers. You'd have a second product called Single Malt English Whisky, which would have potentially multiple sites involved in that production process. But then there's a third category defined by Defra now, which means that even a product which does not comply with the agreed English whisky GI could still call itself single malt. That, for me, is the very definition of watering down the definition, and that is unfortunately where we are and why we're appealing the decision.
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None Portrait Speaker 1
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I think it's a combination of both. I think the first thing is the confusion to the consumer around the category. It is well understood, after decades that single malt means a connection to a place, a single site of production. And we think that that is potentially broken by this this new definition. I think the second thing is an undermining of the investment, which a lot of our member companies have put into producing single malt on a single site. I think about the the Port of Leith distillery in Edinburgh. Many of you will have seen it and visited it, a vertical distillery where they have taken they've spent tens of millions of pounds to have production on a single site on that vertical platform, and that will potentially be undermined by this new definition, where you can just ship in wash, distill it and call it single malt.



















 And I think globally, it's important that the equity of single malt is, is, is, is upheld. We have previously challenged definitions of single malt, like in the United States, where we don't agree with the definition, the definition of US single malt, as agreed now, is that it can be produced on multiple sites. It does not need to be matured for any length of time, unlike Scotch whisky. And so somewhere, some places around the world, we are unsuccessful at arguing our case around the definition of single malt. But in other places around the world, like China and India, we are successful and they have very strong definitions in line with Scotch whisky definition of single malt.





 We believe that high quality category single malt deserves that high quality definition, and breaking that within our UK home market is a real challenge to the industry.
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None Portrait Speaker 1
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Distilleries. Yes. If it was the distillery which produced that whisky, then absolutely we do in the in the Scotch whisky G I take our our IP, our intellectual property very seriously. So we've previously taken action against whiskies around the world which purport themselves to be whiskies from Scotland by having, say, images of bagpipers, as you say, or tartan, or even images of the Houses of Parliament, particularly British images, because the consumer around the world will align those, as Mark said, with identity of Scotland. And so we will take action against those and we have taken action against those successfully in the past.

















This is now a very confusing situation I think has been created here. Two years ago, before the the guy was kind of launched into the opposition process. I could I could tell you pretty confidently what single malt was because it's been established for many decades where it was. Now, I sit here today with some confusion as to what it is, and if I'm confused, then I think consumers will be confused about it because we have those multiple definitions, Defra has said. Talking about the distilleries in England who are not complying with the English whisky G I, that the court will not be able to call their product English single malt anymore, but they can call it English whisky or single malt whisky, just not single malt English whisky.





 Now you have to follow along with me a little bit on that, but that does create confusion in the eye of the consumer. And that is one of the principles which we're trying to defend in our appeal.
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None Portrait Speaker 3
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Yeah, I'll take that. So it is India is the world's biggest whisky market. And at the moment Scotch whisky accounts for something around 3% of the market. And the market is growing year on year. And even in in these times of, of difficulty that we've been talking about over the past six years and turbulence, we've seen India continue to grow. It's been the biggest market in terms of volume. And just last year, 2024, it went up 15%. So the free trade agreement with India is is very significant indeed. That brings down the external tariff, which was 150% to 75%.





















































And then over ten years, that will go down to 40%. So this gives us a significant opportunity. And I think it's it's important for consumers in India, because what we hope to see now is that some of our smaller producers, who previously had looked at the tariff and looked at the difficulty of getting into market and been put off, will now look at India as a as a serious as a serious market to to focus on. It's also important for, for for India, the Indian authorities, which you see an increase in the in the export of Scotch will lead to more revenue for the for the Indian government.





































 And so we are also working closely with the with the Indian whisky industry. So what we're seeing and what I think we're going to continue to see is that more of a strategic partnership where we have companies from the UK investing in Indian whisky and Indian companies investing, investing in the UK. And we already have quite a complex relationship in terms of trading with India. We alluded to some of that previously. So we have bulk exports which are then either bottled in India or put into bulk exports of blend, which are put into Indian made foreign liquor, which is a significant part of the market.





















 And then you have the whisky, which is , which is bottled in in the UK, single malt and, and certain blends. So what we have in India is biggest whisky market and the market continues to grow. So over over time we're going to see the India continue to, to increase. And that's why we're very grateful for the effort being put in by, by, by, by UK and Scottish governments to support this this effort. And just, just last week, we had an important mission by the UK government and the First Minister is in India as we speak now.





 So we're grateful for that support. It's strategically important for for our industry.
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None Portrait Speaker 6
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Thank you.
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None Portrait Speaker 6
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Thank you.
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None Portrait Speaker 6
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Yes we.
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None Portrait Speaker 3
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You put your finger on an a very a very important point, because the minimum period of maturation for whisky is three years. At the moment, three years is a very long time in in politics. And so what our industry is constantly doing is trying to estimate on a on a moving target about three years, eight years, 12 years, what the demand is going to be like. And you're producing today for, for a situation you're, you're not, you're not sure on. So that's a remarkably resilient industry and quite complicated in terms of not just production, but then stock management going forward.





































 So I think part of part of that is, is the protection of the category. So some of the issues that we've been talking about, about having a strong definition of of whisky across the world, part of it is by continuing to be looking for, for new markets. As, as Emily has just talked about, I was in, in Thailand just just ten days ago looking for support there for a free trade agreement. And we're not we're not static in any of this. Again, it's a point. So we will have breakthroughs and then we'll have new market access barriers emerge.



















So we'll have to keep on going back to that. And nor are we existing in in kind of glorious isolation. So at any one point, the EU's going to be doing trade deals. And we're seeing that in South East Asia. The US obviously are looking to increase their exports in a domestic market, which is which is challenging for them. So we're constantly having to just keep up with with the competition and keep up with with those markets across the world. So part of your answer is, I would say is a long term tradition of looking past short term volatility to global trends.





 And the other one is, you know, ensuring that we are as competitive as we can be as a as an industry and keep on producing a fantastic product that people want to want to taste around the world.
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None Portrait Speaker 3
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Yes, we are resilient, but it comes back to a point that I mentioned at the beginning, is that we are an export industry, but we need that support at home. And I think in in some cases, the danger that we run is that we're seen as being, you know, traditionally very successful. Scottish is well known. It will always do well. That is not the case. It is very delicate. If you go out, and especially if you look at some of our smaller producers, the cost of doing business energy regulation are taking their toll. So in order for us to carry on being as successful as we are around the world, we need support back at home and we need and this is not a political point.























 We need those who are taking policy decisions, whether those be parliamentarians like yourself or welcome that you've. You've been and visited distilleries with ministers, whether it be civil servants to understand the specificities of our, of, of our industry. And so, for example, sometimes we see policies on energy relief which classify brewing as an energy intensive industry, but not distilling. And anybody who's been to distillery would know that, broadly speaking, the first part of distilling is actually a brewing process. So we need constantly to be working with our home governments to ensure that they understand the opportunities, how we can continue to invest in, in the in the country, in local communities, how we can continue to create jobs, but also the challenges that we, we have.







 And, and Ruth developed devotes a lot of time to issues such as energy, such as infrastructure, such as some of the issues around skills. So it is a, it is it is a challenge at home to ensure that we continue to be an international success story.
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None Portrait Speaker 6
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And. Sullivan.
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None Portrait Speaker 3
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Effect of these reforms on Scotch whisky? I would take that one, if that's okay. The it was the right decision in. 2023 to look at the system, which would we have in the UK in terms of taxing alcohol? It is grown up over. decades as a kind of Frankenstein monster of a thing, with different parts bolted on at different times and making it quite an unbalanced system. And you're right to say that the. 2023 reforms were predicated through the, at the time, the Queen's Speech to ensure that there was fairness for the Scotch whisky industry.

















































 I have to say that that Frankenstein monster has got a little bit worse in the last three years, with different parts bolted on that have made the system even more imbalanced. For Scotch whisky. We, of course, look forward to the the budget next week. We will see the outcome of of of the Chancellor's decisions on on spirits duty. We have, of course, asked for a cut to the duty for Scotch whisky, which is the the highest in the G7 developed economies, the fourth across European nations and higher than any other alcohol. category in the UK.



































 But in terms of the. The reforms. There is a current evaluation going on through Treasury and HMRC about those. Those reforms we have put in formal evidence to to that evaluation. And essentially, we want a further. opportunity to. rebalance the the system. So we have fairness. One of the things that has been missed in the reforms, if you like, is, is that that strength based narrative, because volume is being forgotten in all of this, you tend to have a dram of whisky, a. 25ml measure. So that's one unit of alcohol, but a pint, an average strength pint in the UK will contain 2.6 units of alcohol.







 It is about the alcohol content of drinks that we should be most concerned about. I can give you a very basic example, and I would encourage members of the committee to go out to your local.
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None Portrait Speaker 3
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Find a.
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None Portrait Speaker 3
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Current system becomes unfair to spirits? Then? There's a multitude of areas I've just spoken about. One of them, which is which is duty. disparity for the same amount of alcohol for the same units of alcohol, you will pay up to four times more in. taxation than you would other categories. We give an example in our written evidence to the committee, where a single unit of Scotch whisky is taxed. £0.34 in duty. For that unit of alcohol, you can get. 3.8 units of alcohol, a cider for. £0.34 of alcohol. So that is a clearly a duty disparity within the system, which has not been addressed by the.

















































 2023 reforms. A second one, which is one of those additional bolts which I spoke about onto the monster is draught relief. Draught relief is intended to support on trade businesses through reduction in excise duty on alcohol served in the on trade. It comes with. stipulations that alcohol must be below. 8.5% ABV, and it must be contained in casks of at least. 20l and dispensed from a draught system. Now, I don't know about you, but most of the pubs, bars and restaurants I go into, that only means beer and cider will get that relief, as opposed to the spirits which are poured by bartenders and other trained staff behind the bar and pouring you a world class cocktail, for example.

























 That, again, is an imbalance in the system. We are cut out of that relief effectively. So one of our. recommendations in the written evidence we've given the committee is that that draught relief system should be. reformed to ensure that spirits like Scotch whisky can have access to that relief in the on trade, because we all understand the importance of of supporting hospitality. But it strikes me as unnecessary for spirits, which are a huge driver of profitability in the on trade to be cut out of that relief. And the last area I'd pick up on in terms of the imbalance to the system is, is the revenue picture.







 We've discussed this for many years in that the we have a a challenge with the way that alcohol duty and spirits duty in particular, is forecast in terms of the revenue. We've seen.
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Patricia Ferguson Portrait Patricia Ferguson
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Yes, there are around about. 25% of production, which is not even on grid. So there is a greater exposure, therefore, to other fuel fluctuations in terms of having to import fuel by road and and other means, whether it's biomass or whether that's LPG, for example. So the fluctuations in those prices as well have a particular profound effect. And grid access is a real challenge. And it is definitely a constraint on what distillers are able to do in terms of reducing their operational costs, but also reducing their work in terms of reducing energy and improving energy efficiency and reducing energy emissions as well.



































































 So prices are a particular constraint for businesses at the moment. But that access, but also. capacity to the grid system as well, is, is a real challenge in terms of being able to adopt . technologies which would save them money but also save emissions. And is it possible to. differentiate between the sort of structural problems that we see in the UK energy market, like the grid, for example, and the. volatility that we've seen in recent times? Does one just compound the other? Absolutely. And I think we've seen that in recent years. It's not unique to the Scotch whisky industry.













































 But our exposure and the fact that our distilleries are spread across Scotland, and we have around about 100 distilleries in those rural and island locations. The exposure to those energy prices are particularly challenging, especially because your options to do something about it are more limited, and the industry is not part of the British Industrial. Competitiveness Scheme at the moment. Is that something you think the industry should be involved in, and why would that be the case? The British Industrial Competitive Scheme is is is specifically targeted at seven industries within the industrial and industrial strategy we have.































 However, as Mark alluded to earlier, in previous years, when there have been energy shocks and energy price shocks, for example, with the start of the Ukraine war, government has stepped in and and helped support businesses of different types. When prices have risen. dramatically and very quickly. But we have actually been excluded from those in the past. So the Energy Bills Discount Scheme and others which have operated in recent years. despite our energy demand and our energy need, and also other beverage sectors being included. So we are looking to the government to to look at including this on future schemes.















 So there has been discussion around a targeted energy discount scheme. For example, there are discussions. around a British industry supercharger consultation coming out in terms of. supporting through energy relief schemes as well, and are really our plea is that we are included and .
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None Portrait Speaker 1
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Network can .
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None Portrait Speaker 1
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You finding .
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None Portrait Speaker 1
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And there are .
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None Portrait Speaker 1
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Can .
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Patricia Ferguson Portrait Patricia Ferguson
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Contraction in employment across the industry? Yeah. The pressures on businesses more broadly are certainly we're seeing job losses. And a year ago we were talking around about 1000 job losses in the industry. That's certainly grown in the last 12 months because of the pressures that my colleagues have been talking about today. It's a real the loss of growth in our in our export markets definitely does does play through to the fact that we are now not growing as well as an employer, but that. opportunity certainly remains for recovery and for, for, for. improving the job market again, within our industry.

























 And there are many opportunities to do this. As I say, there are certain skills which are still really highly in demand, like engineering. Digital language skills are also something that are highly valued by the industry. We're obviously an export facing sector, so talking to our visitors and talking to our clients around the world, languages are also a really, really valuable skill that the industry still still looks to, to recruit. I think the one thing that that would really help. support our member companies is there are many different schemes, whether it's apprenticeships, whether it's skills development schemes across across Scotland and the UK.







 And I think that. complexity can often mean it's very difficult to navigate as an employer again, if you're not one of the bigger. companies who have teams of people who can help them through into these into these.
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None Portrait Speaker 1
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Demand there? If .
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Patricia Ferguson Portrait Patricia Ferguson
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And the respective ability to for a circular economy for each of those. While some of that has started to be addressed, the EPR fee still remains significantly high for glass. And if we're looking at. comparisons around about £40 a tonne in Italy, if you're in an equivalent scheme here, we're looking at even best case scenario for glass, currently about. £185 a tonne. So it is it is quite a significant distinction and again, a competitive distortion with our key markets where we are exporting to. There is movement on the. methodology to to look at this . And we really welcome that progress.



































 So we look forward to working with the producer organisation behind that to, to, to continue to look at how that, how that system can be improved and fairness can be brought through. But there are challenges with the policy as well in terms of how it is constructed, because on trade versus. consumer materials placed on market cannot be determined. So again, you're looking at some some having to pay double payments, which is again, wasted money for businesses and additional costs and pressures on the system. So there are important things that need to be ironed out with a policy that still remain.





















 The one point I would note, however, is EPR is only one part of the policy landscape on packaging. Obviously, doctors is another one which will be coming in 12 months, and there's a lot to be worked out with that which is still unknown, which begins challenges for business planning, financial planning for businesses. Another one is packaging recovery, notes. Prn's apologies. There's a huge amount of acronyms in this space.

 Packaging recovery notes. They are also part of this landscape of, of, of trying to improve.
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Methodology, perhaps.
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Environment as .
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The industry .
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Kind of.
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Population wide .
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Energy .
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Which .
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