Clause 3
Finance (No. 2) Bill
5:15 pm
John Healey (Financial Secretary, HM Treasury; Wentworth, Labour)
The reason for the decision on beer duty compared with that on spirits is that spirits are significantly more heavily taxed than beer and we have in place a long-term policy goal of a fairer balance of taxation across all alcohol products. That is the reason for the differential treatment in this year’s Budget.
In reply to the hon. Member for Falmouth and Camborne, spirits are heavily taxed and sparkling wine is the most heavily taxed of all alcoholic drinks. That is part of the reason why the decision that we took in previous years to freeze the duty on sparkling wines was taken again this year. There may be some champagne drinkers among the officials who support me on the Bill because I have a note that says that the freeze on the duty on sparkling wine will affect not only the traditional champagne products to which the hon. Lady referred, but the excellent sparkling wines from Britain, including the 2002 Merret Bloomsbury from the RidgeView estate in East Sussex which was recently crowned the best sparkling wine in the world at the international wine and spirit competition.