Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will conduct a review of the potential impact of spirits duty policy on the on-trade sector.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Autumn Budget 2025 the Chancellor confirmed that alcohol duty will be uprated on 1 February 2026 to main its current real-terms value. The government does not expect this to have any significant impact to GDP, nor competition between the on and off trades.
Following a detailed review between 2020 and 2023, a new duty system was introduced in August 2023. Information about this review and its outcomes are available here:
www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-new-alcohol-duty-system-consultation
The Government plans to evaluate the 2023 alcohol duty reforms in late-2026, in line with our commitment to do so three years after they took effect.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the contribution of on-trade sale of UK spirits to GDP.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
At Autumn Budget 2025 the Chancellor confirmed that alcohol duty will be uprated on 1 February 2026 to main its current real-terms value. The government does not expect this to have any significant impact to GDP, nor competition between the on and off trades.
Following a detailed review between 2020 and 2023, a new duty system was introduced in August 2023. Information about this review and its outcomes are available here:
www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-new-alcohol-duty-system-consultation
The Government plans to evaluate the 2023 alcohol duty reforms in late-2026, in line with our commitment to do so three years after they took effect.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made on the potential impact of a complete spirits duty freeze for the on-trade on revenue.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Alcohol duty is paid at the point of production or import, before it is diverted to either the on-trade or the off-trade. It is therefore not possible to freeze duty rates exclusively for the on-trade.
HMRC’s latest published estimate on the effect of a 1% change in spirits duties on tax receipts can be found here: Direct effects of illustrative tax changes bulletin (June 2025) - GOV.UK.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether the UK delegation attending the fourth Meeting of Parties to the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control plans to (a) oppose the extension of the scope of application of the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products beyond tobacco products to electronic nicotine delivery services and (b) help ensure that proposed amendments of the Treaty follow the proper procedures.
Answered by Dan Tomlinson - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
The procedures for amending the World Health Organization Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products are laid down in Articles 38 and 39 of that treaty. These stipulate that any proposals need to be communicated to parties at least six months before the session at which they are proposed to be adopted.
As no such communication has been made in this case, if any proposals for extending the Treaty to electronic nicotine delivery services were to emerge, they would need to be considered at a future Meeting of Parties (MOP) rather than this MOP. The UK would always seek to ensure that any proposals to amend the Treaty follow the proper procedures.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made on the potential impact of reduced pharmaceutical investment on the economy.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government monitors a wide range of indicators to assess the UK’s economic performance. Official economic forecasts and assessments of policy impacts are set out in the Office for Budget Responsibility’s (OBR) Economic and Fiscal Outlook documents, the most recent of which was published in March 2025. The next publication will be in November 2025, providing further assessment of the UK’s economic performance.
The Government recognises the pharmaceutical industry’s vital contribution to the UK economy through creating high-value jobs, driving innovation, and improving public health through access to effective treatments.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the Extended Producer Responsibility scheme on food price inflation.
Answered by Emma Reynolds - Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
HM Treasury does not produce forecasts of the UK economy. Forecasting the economy, including the impact of Government policy decisions, is the responsibility of the independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR). The OBR does not publish estimates of the impact of policy decisions, including the Extended Producer Responsibility, (EPR) on levels of food inflation.
There is an impact assessment of the EPR system published, where the system’s impact on inflation can be found. It estimates the impact on headline CPI at around 0.07% and does not provide a separate estimate for food inflation
The Bank of England’s August Monetary Policy Report notes that, under full pass-through of costs, packaging EPR would raise the level of food prices by a little over 0.5%.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what recent assessment her Department has made of the potential impact of the standard 20% VAT rate on the international competitiveness of the (a) tourism and (b) hospitality sectors.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government recognises the significant contribution made by hospitality and tourism businesses to economic growth and social life in the UK.
VAT is a broad-based tax on consumption, and the 20 per cent standard rate applies to most goods and services. The UK’s VAT rate of 20 per cent is close to the OECD average of 19.3 per cent. The UK has a higher VAT registration threshold than any EU country and the joint highest in the OECD, at £90,000. This keeps the majority of businesses out of the VAT regime altogether.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will publish a distributional impact assessment of changes to national insurance contributions on (a) low and (b) middle income workers in the hospitality industry.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government has set out the impacts of the policy changes from Autumn Budget 2024 in the usual way.
A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.
With all policies considered, this forecasts the employment level to increase from 33.6 million in 2024 to 34.8 million in 2029.
The Office for Budget Responsibility published its most recent Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO) in March 2025, which sets out a detailed forecast of the economy and public finances.
The Government decided to protect the smallest businesses from the changes to employer NICs by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that this year, 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all, and more than half of all employers will either gain or will see no change.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of the impact of changes to the employer National Insurance contributions on employment levels in the hospitality sector.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
The Government has set out the impacts of the policy changes from Autumn Budget 2024 in the usual way.
A Tax Information and Impact Note (TIIN) was published alongside the introduction of the Bill containing the changes to employer NICs. The TIIN sets out the impact of the policy on the exchequer, the economic impacts of the policy, and the impacts on individuals, businesses, and civil society organisations, as well as an overview of the equality impacts.
With all policies considered, this forecasts the employment level to increase from 33.6 million in 2024 to 34.8 million in 2029.
The Office for Budget Responsibility published its most recent Economic and Fiscal Outlook (EFO) in March 2025, which sets out a detailed forecast of the economy and public finances.
The Government decided to protect the smallest businesses from the changes to employer NICs by increasing the Employment Allowance from £5,000 to £10,500. This means that this year, 865,000 employers will pay no NICs at all, and more than half of all employers will either gain or will see no change.
Asked by: Joe Robertson (Conservative - Isle of Wight East)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what comparative assessment she has made of the total effective tax payable by (a) the hospitality sector and (b) other sectors.
Answered by James Murray - Chief Secretary to the Treasury
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) has not performed a comparative analysis of the total effective tax payable from the hospitality sector and other sectors.