HC Deb 12 December 1967 vol 756 c90W
Sir C. Osborne

asked the Chancellor of the Exchequer, in view of the fact that deaths from lung cancer in 1966 numbered 30,483, and that there are 70,000 chronic alcoholics and 200,000 in the earlier stages of deterioration, what steps he proposes to take to moderate the national alcohol bill of £1,517,000,000, and tobacco bill of £1,504,000,000, and so help the nation live within its income.

Mr. Harold Lever

More than half of this expenditure is absorbed by indirect taxation, any changes in the level of which would, of course, be a Budgetary matter.