The All Party Parliamentary Beer Group has organised a UK Pubs Crisis Ministerial Summit in the House of Commons Committee Room 10 at 5.00 to 6.00pm on Wednesday 4th March 2009.

The Axe the Beer Tax - Save the Pub Campaign has been urging MPs to attend this important meeting where MPs from all political parties will have the opportunity to question Ministers from five different government departments about the state of the ailing British pub industry and what the Government intends to do about it.

The Government Ministers attending the Summit are: 

• Gerry Sutcliffe MP

Parliamentary Under Secretary of State, DCMS

• Alan Campbell MP

Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office

• Angela Eagle MP

Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury

• Rt Hon John Healey MP

Minister for Local Government, DCLG

• Rt Hon Dawn Primarolo MP

Minister of State for Public Health, Department of Health

The meeting comes as the Government faces increasing pressure after recent figures from the British Beer and Pub Association show that the rate of pub closures in the UK have accelerated to nearly 6 per day. Since the 2008 budget, when the Chancellor introduced the beer tax escalator, 2000 pubs have closed down leading to 20,000 job losses in the industry.