Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment his Department has made on the impact of the proposed alcohol duty system on (a) health inequalities and (b) wider inequality.
To better support public health, the Government intends to move to a new system that taxes all products in reference to their alcohol content for the first time. This will help to target problem drinking by taxing higher-strength products associated with alcohol-related harm a higher rate of duty.
The Government is continuing to engage with interested stakeholders, including public health professionals, on these reforms. A consultation was launched in October and stakeholders are encouraged to respond before the deadline of 30 January 2022. A tax information and impact note will be published following the consultation when the policy is final, or near final, in the usual way.