Fuel duty: the rate, and how it got there

What is the fuel duty rate?

How has fuel duty changed over time?

Headline duty on the main unleaded grade, pence per litre, nominal, as published alongside each week of the DESNZ price series.

• 1993The fuel duty escalator starts: duty is to rise faster than inflation every year, first 3% above inflation, later 5% and then 6%. The stated aims were cutting emissions and raising revenue.
• 1999The escalator is scrapped. Duty has roughly doubled in six years.
• 2000Fuel protests: hauliers and farmers blockade refineries and many forecourts run dry within days.
• 2008-2010Duty rises resume with inflation as oil spikes; VAT goes from 17.5% to 20% in January 2011, adding to the tax on tax.
• 2011Duty is cut 1p to 57.95p and frozen. It stays frozen for over a decade.
• 2022After Russia's invasion of Ukraine sends prices to record highs, duty is cut 5p to 52.95p as a temporary measure.
• 2025The Budget plans to unwind the 5p cut in steps from September 2026.
• 2026With the Middle East conflict pushing prices up, the September and December rises are cancelled; duty stays at 52.95p until at least the end of the year.
• 2028A per-mile charge on electric vehicles is due from April 2028, as duty receipts shrink with fewer petrol and diesel cars.

Timeline checked by hand 22 September 2026. Rates for each week come from the DESNZ weekly series, not from this list.

What has the freeze done to the tax?

Because duty is a fixed number of pence rather than a percentage, inflation erodes it. Real-terms fuel duty receipts peaked in 2010–11 and are 41.1% below that peak today, even though the number of vehicles on the road has grown. The tax share of a litre is also lower than in the late 1990s, when cheap oil and the escalator pushed it above 80%; it is 47% now.

Why does the UK tax fuel this heavily?

There is no single reason. Several have piled up over fifty years.

Does it raise a lot of money?

About £24.6bn a year, similar to the whole budget of some government departments. Demand for fuel barely drops when prices rise, so the Treasury can count on it. That is the main reason governments of both parties have kept it high even while freezing it.

Is it a road tax?

Fuel duty goes into general taxation, not roads. The link between motoring taxes and road spending was broken in the 1930s. Duty and vehicle excise duty together raise far more than is spent on roads, which is a common complaint, but the same is true of most taxes: they are not tied to what they fund.

What is the environment and congestion case?

The 1990s escalator was justified partly on climate grounds, and economists often argue fuel duty is a rough stand-in for the costs driving imposes on others: emissions, air pollution, congestion and accidents. Critics reply that duty is a blunt tool for congestion, because a litre burned on an empty Highland road is taxed the same as one in London traffic.

Does North Sea oil make it cheaper?

UK crude sells at world prices, so domestic production does not lower the pump price. The countries with very cheap fuel, such as Libya, Iran and Venezuela, subsidise it from state oil revenues rather than taxing it.