Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, whether her Department has made an assessment of the potential impact of spirits duty on the ability of pubs to compete with off-trade retailers.

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.