Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what comparative assessment she has made of the potential impact of alcohol duty policy on on-trade venues such as pubs, with off-trade alcohol sales in supermarkets.

The importance of the 'on-trade' is recognised in the alcohol duty system via Draught Relief, which ensures eligible products served on draught pay less duty than their packaged equivalents. The Chancellor significantly increased the generosity of this relief at Autumn Budget 2024, taking a penny of duty off a typical strength pint and reducing overall duty receipts by £85m. Draught beer and cider now pay 13.9% less in tax than their packaged equivalents – a 50% increase on the draught discount under the previous government (9.2%).

At Autumn Budget 2025, the Chancellor confirmed that alcohol duty would be uprated on 1 February 2026 to maintain its real-terms value. The government does not expect this to have any significant impact on competition between the on- and off-trades.

An assessment of the impacts of the inflation-linked uprating at the most recent Budget is published within the Tax Impact and Information Note (TIIN) here:  https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/alcohol-duty-rates-change/alcohol-duty-uprating#summary-of-impacts.