The sugar tax and soft drinks in the United Kingdom (UK) - Statistics and Facts
Officially known as the Soft Drinks Industry Levy (SDIL) and informally branded by the media as the 'Sugar Tax', the UK chancellor George Osborne first announced the government's intentions to tax drinks based on sugar content in his Budget speech in March 2016. With a focus on sugar-sweetened beverages, the levy aims to target the manufacturing and import of such drinks in the United Kingdom by taxing products depending on their sugar content. Two bands have been proposed: one applying to soft drinks with five or more grams of sugar per 100ml and another to soft drinks with a sugar content over eight grams per 100ml; 54.3 percent of soft drinks at major retailers are potentially taxable. Pure fruit juices and milk-based drinks, as well as those below the sugar content threshold, are exempt, while some of the soft drink industry's biggest names will experience increases in price.
