Scotch Whisky Industry

Jim Sheridan Excerpts

Thursday 12th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Jim Sheridan (Paisley and Renfrewshire North) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Argyll and Bute (Mr Reid) on securing this extremely important debate. Like him, I have many constituents who work in the whisky industry and who benefit from it. I emphasise that the whisky industry is not just a Scottish industry; it is very much a UK industry, and UK workers enjoy quality jobs, permanent jobs and quality pay as a result of the whisky industry.

I also genuinely congratulate the Minister on her work. She has been extremely generous with her time, as she has met the representatives from the Scotch whisky industry. There is all-party support for a tax cut for the industry.

I will not repeat all the statistics around the Scotch whisky industry; I am sure that the Minister is well aware of them. I am not doing a disservice to the people who work in the industry, but we have rehearsed all the arguments with the Minister, and she knows what they are. The only brief comment I wish to make is to reflect what the whisky industry is saying. David Frost, chief executive of the Scotch Whisky Association, met the Minister recently. He said :

“We had a warm and constructive discussion with the Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury…The Minister clearly understands Scotch Whisky’s economic importance and we welcome her interest in the industry. In the UK, Scotch Whisky is under sustained pressure from taxation. 80% of the price of an average bottle of Scotch Whisky is taxation and we hope the government will take on board our concerns about the negative impact of this onerous tax burden.”

He went on to say:

“In last year’s Budget, the Chancellor highlighted Scotch Whisky as a ‘huge British success story’. We hope this year too he will show his support for this world-class manufacturing industry, which adds £5 billion to the UK economy and £4 billion net to the UK trade performance every year. We hope the Government will back us by cutting duty by 2% for Scotch Whisky this year. This would be fair to consumers, send a powerful signal to export markets, support public finances, and most of all promote investment and jobs.”

We hope that the Government can see clearly where they are going with this and I look forward to the day of the Budget when the Chancellor will have a dram at the Dispatch Box as a way of promoting good Scotch whisky.