§ Mrs. LaitTo ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer what plans he has to reduce the Customs and Excise regulatory regime of English vineyards to the levels enjoyed by wine makers in other EC countries.
§ Sir John CopeThe regulatory regime operated by Customs and Excise on English vineyards is commensurate to the amount of revenue at risk.
Customs and Excise are undertaking a programme of rationalisation and simplification in the excise field. The aim is to meet revenue requirements by making full use of traders' own commercial accounting and security arrangements in place of officially designated records and practices. Visiting staff will exercise control primarily by auditing traders' systems to ensure that they provide adequate protection for the Revenue. Physical checks on stocks and operations will be targeted according to perceived risk. Most traders will be visited much less frequently than at present. A number of changes along these lines have already been extended to the control of United Kingdom wine producers.