To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer (1) what the cost to his Department was of the Small Brewers Relief Scheme in each of the last five years; (240645)

Information on the cost to the Treasury of the Small Brewers Relief Scheme is published at:

http://www.hmrc.gov.uk/stats/tax expenditures/menu.htm

and is only available for the last two financial years.

The numbers of brewers eligible for the Small Brewers Relief (i.e. that produce less than 5,000 HL of beer per year) in each of the last six years were:

The number of brewers that took advantage of Small Brewers Relief (i.e. that paid a duty rate of £6.63 before Budget 2007 and £6.85 after Budget 2007) in 2007 was estimated to be 419.