National statistics

Alcohol Bulletin background and references

Updated 29 February 2024

1. Alcohol Duty background

Alcohol Duty is charged on alcoholic goods produced or processed in the UK, as well as alcoholic goods imported into the UK for consumption on the UK market. Alcoholic goods are also subject to the standard rate of VAT.

HMRC administers Alcohol Duty on 4 categories of goods:

• wine (wine and other fermented products such as fruit ciders)
• spirits
• beer
• cider

From 1 August 2023, Alcohol Duty is charged by litre of pure alcohol on all categories of alcoholic goods. For current Alcohol Duty rates, go to Rates and allowances: Excise Duty - Alcohol Duty for guidance. For historic Alcohol Duty rates, go to Historic Alcohol Duty rates.

Duty is payable once alcoholic goods are released onto the UK market for consumption. From 1 August 2023, duty is charged on litres of pure alcohol and so the overall amount of pure alcohol included in beverages released for consumption are referred to as ‘clearances’ within the Alcohol Bulletin from 1 August 2023.

Before 1 August 2023, Alcohol Duty on the wine, beer and cider categories was charged according to quantity, with different bands according to the alcohol by volume (ABV). Due to this, the quantities of each product released onto the UK market for consumption were referred to as ‘clearances’ within the Alcohol Bulletin before 1 August 2023.

Traders must pay duty the month after the accounting period when liabilities were accrued, which is usually the previous calendar month. This causes a one month lag between accounting periods ending and duty receipts being received by HMRC. As such, duty receipts and clearances statistics are not fully aligned.

2. Alcohol Duty

2.1 Wine (wine and other fermented products)

Total Alcohol Duty receipts statistics on wine include wine and ‘other fermented products’ (which used to be called made wine). Within the accompanying Alcohol Bulletin data tables, receipts and clearances for wine and other fermented products since August 2023 are reported separately. Clearances for the historic categories of wine and made wine are also included separately within the Alcohol Bulletin data tables.

Wine refers to wine (both still and sparkling) that is produced by fermentation of fresh grapes or grape must (freshly pressed fruit juice that contains the skins, seeds, and stems of the fruit). Wine includes grapes grown in the UK, as well as fortified wines and vermouth.

Other Fermented Products (OFP) refers to any other drink (both still and sparkling) that has alcohol made by fermentation. This excludes beer, cider, wine and products produced through distillation or any other process.

OFP also includes fermented beverages produced from concentrated grape juice. These beverages are mostly UK produced, and before 1976 they represented the majority of British wine.

Fermented product based ready to drink (RTD) coolers, and cider and perry with a strength exceeding 8.5% ABV are also included within other fermented products. Also included within coolers are alcoholic soft drinks and similar products of appropriate strength.

Alcohol Duty receipts from wine and OFP are generally collected one month after clearances are recorded.

The exception being wine released from warehouses where returns may be submitted twice monthly covering the 15th to the end of the corresponding calendar month and from the 1st to the 14th of the next calendar month. Total duty receipts from the 2 returns are then due on the 29th of the latter of the two months.

Alcohol Duty on wine and OFP is charged on the amount of alcohol in the product in litres at set amounts across 4 duty bands between 1.2% and 22%+ ABV.

Since February 1996, historic statistics for made wine over 15% ABV have been included within the 5.5% to 15% ABV rate to preserve commercial confidentiality. Historic made wine clearances from ex-UK registered premises statistics have also been included within made wine ex-warehouse for the same reason.

From May 2002, historic RTD in reference to made wine only includes wine based products. Spirit based RTD products have paid duty equivalent to other spirits products from April 2002.

High made wine ex-ship figures in January and March 2020 are potentially due to taxpayers anticipating the introduction of measures to regulate post duty point dilution (PDPD).

Go to HMRC Excise Notice 163: wine production for detailed information on Alcohol Duty charged on wine and other fermented products.

2.2 Spirits

Alcohol Duty on spirits is payable on any spirits, or any mixture or combination of spirits with anything else, at a strength of more than 1.2% ABV. Spirits are charged with Alcohol Duty as soon as they’ve been manufactured.

Following an announcement at the Financial Statement and Budget Report (FSBR) 2002, spirits based RTD products were made dutiable at the same rate as other spirits from 28 April 2002. From 28 April 2002 until 1 September 2002, clearances of these products were initially included within imported and other spirits.

Estimated clearances for spirit based RTD products from May 2002 to August 2002 were later included within the Alcohol Bulletin using an ARIMA (Auto Regressive Integrated Moving Average) modelling process.

This involved examining the trend and seasonality of both the spirit based RTDs clearance series as well as the imported and other spirits series. For the period May 2002 to August 2002, spirits based RTD clearances are no longer included in the imported and other spirits clearances series.

For spirits based RTD coolers clearances statistics before 28 April 2002, go to the archived Made Wine Bulletin, accessed via the National Archives.

UK potable spirits production statistics are sourced from data submitted to HMRC by UK distilleries within quarterly W21 returns. Potable distilled spirits refer to any distillate capable of being used for beverage purposes. The statistics include head and tail spirit, which is the amount of unusable or lower quality spirit that is produced at the beginning and end of the distillation process. Head and tail spirits represent approximately 10% of total UK potable spirits production data.

Alcohol Duty on spirits statistics for ex-ship (imported) and other clearances include gin and other UK produced spirits. A breakdown for these is not available.

Excise warehouse W1 returns are submitted by approved warehouses informing HMRC of alcohol movements and stock levels at the end of return periods. This information is used to calculate clearances.

From June 2013, statistics on the production of potable spirits are published with no breakdowns in order to preserve commercial confidentiality.

From April 2011, UK produced grain whisky clearances statistics have been added to UK produced blended whisky clearances to preserve taxpayer confidentiality.

High historic spirit based RTD statistics in May and June 2020 are likely due to taxpayers switching from spirits rather than made wine based RTD products following the introduction of measures to regulate PDPD.

Go to HMRC Excise Notice 39: spirits production in the UK for detailed information on Alcohol Duty charged on spirits.

2.3 Beer and Cider

Beer is defined as ale, porter, stout and any other description of beer. It is dutiable in the UK once its strength exceeds 1.2% ABV. Taxpayers become liable for Alcohol Duty on beer once it is produced, imported or released onto the UK market for consumption. Go to HMRC Excise Notice 226: Beer Duty for detailed information on Alcohol Duty charged on beer.

Cider is defined as cider of a strength exceeding 1.2% ABV obtained from the fermentation of apple or pear juice. It becomes dutiable once it is produced, imported or released onto the UK market for consumption. Go to HMRC Excise Notice 162: cider production for detailed information on Alcohol Duty charged on cider.

Alcohol Duty receipts from beer and cider are generally collected one month after clearances.

The exception being beer and cider released from warehouses where returns may be submitted twice monthly covering the 15th to the end of the corresponding calendar month and from the 1st to the 14th of the next calendar month. Total duty receipts from the 2 returns are then due on the 29th of the latter of the two months.

UK registered beer clearance statistics are based on data sourced from trader returns. Ex-warehouse and ex-ship clearance statistics are estimated using duty receipts, current beer duty rates and estimated average alcohol strengths based on Official Statistics Retail Price Index basket of goods. This method may result in the overestimation of ex-warehouse and ex-ship clearances.

From June 1993, Alcohol Duty on beer has been payable when beer leaves breweries or other registered premises. Duty was previously payable at an earlier stage (known as the ‘works stage’) of the brewing process, with an allowance made for wastage.

Statistics for periods before 1994 include adjustments to bring them in line with current data. The change in June 1993 also provided HMRC with beer strengths data.

Following review of the Alcohol Bulletins methodology in 2013, we made improvements to the accuracy of beer clearances statistics. A negative consequence was to limit the comparability of estimates before and after October 2011.

The reason for improving this was to exploit new data for high and low strength beers that HMRC only gained access to from October 2011. Prior to this date, HMRC possessed no data for these as traders were not required to provide this information.

Traders were required to report breakdowns of high and low strength beers following duty rate changes. These breakdowns allow HMRC to produce more accurate estimates of average strengths, which in turn provides more accurate clearances estimates.

It is unfortunately not possible to provide estimates on the same basis for before and after these duty rate changes but overall differences are likely to be small.

Another outcome of the 2013 review was to remove some double counting for ex-ship statistics that were discovered during the process, alongside improvement of included grossing factors.

Estimating clearances is not a straightforward process as data is sourced from multiple internal sources. But following the comprehensive 2013 review, HMRC are confident that the revised statistics provide more accurate estimates.

The EX46 return is one of the main data sources for UK produced beer. The return captures data for quantities of beer produced alongside quantities released for consumption and exports. Data within EX46 returns is captured within HMRC’s Chief Finance Officer (CFO) databases and is one of the main sources for beer clearances data within the Alcohol Bulletin.

From March 2020, the methodology used to calculate ‘thousand hectolitres’ and ‘thousand hectolitres of alcohol (production)’ for UK beer production has been amended slightly.

Historically, an adjustment factor based upon the difference between the aggregated total amount of Alcohol Duty on beer declared by UK breweries within EX46 returns and the final aggregated total amount of Alcohol Duty receipts from beer received by HMRC from UK breweries for the same period has been used.

Variations in the timings of Alcohol Duty payments on beer to HMRC during the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic have limited the effectiveness of this method. To mitigate this, HMRC have used 6-year averages based upon previous adjustment factors to calculate these since March 2020.

3. Alcohol Bulletin statistics

HMRC uses 3 main measures for tax revenue:

1. accruals (when the tax liability occurs)
2. declarations (when HMRC is notified of the liability)
3. cash receipts (when tax is paid to HMRC)

The Alcohol Bulletin reports tax (Alcohol Duty) revenue in cash receipts.

3.1 Data Sources

Statistics are based upon administrative data sources which go through detailed internal quality assurance before publication.

The main data sources for Alcohol Duty information are:

• Customs and Excise Core Accounting System (CECAS)
• Customs Data Analytics Platform (CDAP)
• UK excise warehousing reports, known as W502
• Registered Excise Dealers and Shippers (REDS) system

Additional sources exploited for individual taxes are also outlined within Alcohol Duty subsections.

3.2 Rounding

Cash receipts statistics are rounded to the nearest million pounds. Quantities released for consumption are rounded to the nearest litre of pure alcohol and/or hectolitre (except where otherwise stated when they may be rounded to the nearest thousand hectolitre). Totals may be different from the total of their parts due to rounding.

Any differences between statistics within the Alcohol Bulletin commentary HTML document and data tables is because calculations used within the commentary document are based upon unrounded statistics.

Statistics may also show as zero within data tables where there are small negative values because of rounding.

3.3 Revisions

The latest 3 months of data are marked as ‘provisional’ within the data tables.

Statistics which have changed since the previous release are marked as ‘revised’ within the data tables. Revisions are only marked when the finalised figure has changed. As statistics are sourced from administrative data, they are subject to some adjustments, particularly during the initial months after publication.

Total cash receipts are aligned with the National Audit Office (NAO) audited ‘HMRC annual report and accounts’. This can result in adjustments to March statistics to ensure consistency between reported financial year totals. As such, March figures are treated as provisional until aligned with the annual report and accounts.

3.4 Data limitations

The Alcohol Bulletin does not include geographical data on where liabilities occurred, as HMRC does not collect this data from taxpayers. HMRC however does publish experimental statistics which estimate ‘disaggregated tax receipts’ at country level.

The quality of the Alcohol Bulletin statistics depends on the purpose they are used for. For understanding cash receipts and quantities released for consumption for Alcohol Duty on different categories of goods, these statistics are effective as they are based upon related data from registered taxpayers. But they may not be as effective for other purposes as the scope of these statistics is defined by tax law.

Additionally, statistics will not necessarily relate to the drinking of alcohol, since products may be drank sometime after duty has been paid on them. Statistics also do not cover duty free alcohol and other alcohol where duty has not been declared to HMRC.

3.5 Pre-release access to statistics

The Alcohol Bulletin provides no official pre-release access to the statistics. But as these statistics are sourced from administrative data, they may be used within HMRC for operational reasons before publication. HMRC maintains records of those with pre-release access to the departments National Statistics.

3.6 Statistics at HMRC

Go to statistics at HMRC for further information on the departments National and Official Statistics.

4. Contacts

The Alcohol Bulletin is produced by the Indirect Tax Receipts Monitoring team as part of the ‘Excise duties, VAT and other tax statistics’ collection.

Contact revenuemonitoring@hmrc.gov.uk for statistical enquiries

For media enquiries see HMRC press office.

For taxpayers with excise enquiries see the Excise Helpline.

5. Publication calendar

The Alcohol Bulletin is published on the last working day of the month in February, May, August and November. It is delayed by one day when the day before the last working day is a non-working day. The bulletin is also never published on a Monday.

From 30 August 2019, the Alcohol Bulletin has been published on GOV.UK.

Archive versions of the Alcohol Bulletin published on GOV.UK after August 2019 are no longer hosted on this page and are instead available via the UK Government Web Archive, from the National Archives.

Archive versions of the Alcohol Bulletin published between 2008 and August 2019 are found on the archived UK Trade Info website, accessed via the National Archives.

Go to research and statistics for future Alcohol Bulletin release date announcements. Announcements are published no later than 4 weeks before the planned release date.

6. User engagement

HMRC welcomes user engagement to improve the departments National and Official Statistics. You can contact statistics producers on GOV.UK.

We consulted users about indirect tax receipts statistics from 20 November 2015 to 5 February 2016.

Following previous user consultation held by HMRC, the historic Beer, Cider, Spirits, Made Wine and Wine of Fresh Grape bulletins were combined into one Alcohol Bulletin from May 2010. The results of this consultation and the full consultation report were published at the National Archives.

A consultation on changes to HMRC statistics publications was held from 24 October 2022 to 16 January 2023. The feedback from this consultation is being analysed and the consultation response will be published in Spring 2023. No proposed changes to the Alcohol Bulletin have been announced.

For archived versions of the Beer, Cider, Spirits, Made Wine and Wine of Fresh Grape bulletins, go to the archived UK Trade Info website, accessed via the National Archives.

7. National Statistics

National Statistics are accredited official statistics.

The United Kingdom Statistics Authority (UKSA) has given these statistics National Statistics status. This means that the statistics comply with the Code of Practice for Statistics as set out within the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

National Statistics status can generally be interpreted to mean that statistics:

• meet user needs
• are effectively communicated and accessible
• undergo regular quality assurance reviews
• produced professional and according to sound methods
• managed impartially in the public interest and free of political interference

Contact UKSA for queries about National and Official Statistics.

Our statistical practice is regulated by the Office for Statistics Regulation (OSR).

OSR sets the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics that all producers of official statistics should adhere to.

You are welcome to contact us directly with any comments about how we meet these standards by emailing revenuemonitoring@hmrc.gov.uk.

Alternatively, you can contact OSR by emailing regulation@statistics.gov.uk or via the OSR website.

The Alcohol Bulletin statistics were independently reviewed by the Office for Statistics Regulation in February 2012. They comply with the standards of trustworthiness, quality and value in the Code of Practice for Statistics and should be labelled ‘accredited official statistics’. Accredited official statistics are called National Statistics in the Statistics and Registration Service Act 2007.

8. Related statistics

The HMRC tax receipts and National Insurance contributions for the UK National Statistics provide the first provisional snapshot of cash receipts statistics each month.

The HMRC Measuring tax gaps Official Statistics estimate the tax gap^{[footnote 1]} for all taxes and duties administered by the department.

HMRC publish the Tax ready reckoner Official Statistics which show the estimated direct impact on HMRC tax revenues if simple changes were made to various taxes. They are intended to assist researchers and policymakers.

The Public sector finances National Statistics bulletin from ONS and HM Treasury (HMT) provides the latest available estimates for key public sector finance statistics each month.

The independent Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) forecast duty receipts within their ‘economic and fiscal outlook’ publications.

1. Tax gaps are the difference between tax collected and that, which in HMRC’s view, should be collected. ↩