Dear Simon,

False statement tweeted by HM Treasury – Breach of the Civil Service Code

We are writing on behalf of the Campaign for Pubs, with a complaint about an untrue statement made by Treasury officials that clearly breaches the Civil Service Code.

Following the budget yesterday, the official Twitter account for HM Treasury @hmtreasury issued a tweet that stated:

At the Autumn Statement, we froze alcohol duty for six months to provide stability for businesses.

Today we’re extending the duty freeze further – from Aug 2024 to 1 Feb 2025.

Cutting costs for breweries, distilleries, restaurants, nightclubs, pubs & bars.

Yet this is clearly and demonstrably untrue. A freeze of beer duty (which is a producer tax, levied on breweries) simply holds this current tax, on beer, at the same level. It is therefore impossible that this measure has ‘cut costs’ for any of the above parties. As alas is to be expected from this Government, this ill-judged measure will continue to (hugely) benefit global brewers and drinks producers – and not pubs and publicans who are not helped by it at all – but it hasn’t cut costs for anyone, nor could it, as a freeze.