On 3rd March 2025, the biggest change in whisky cask ownership in over a quarter of a century made it easier than ever for people to get involved in whisky cask ownership through the removal of a particularly controversial piece of legislation.
Proposed alterations to the Warehouse and Owners of Warehouse Goods Regulations 1999 (WOWGR) have been the subject of several significant campaigns, and its repeal would see a significant change in the legal process for owning cask whisky.
To explain what happens next, it is important to know why WOWGR was implemented in the first place, how it affected private cask owners and what is changing going forward.
What Is WOWGR?
In 1999, Statutory Instrument Number 1278 was implemented to oversee the storage, movement and trade of goods held in duty suspense, which included whisky, beer and tobacco at the time.
The aim was to ensure that warehouse owners and owners of warehoused goods were not trying to exploit loopholes in tax and duty law that existed at the time by going through a warehouse keeper.
It required owners to register and get permission from WOWGR to trade goods, and non-UK businesses needed to use a Duty Representative based in the UK before they could access whisky casks.
How Did It Affect Private Cask Owners?
Legally, it did not affect ownership at all, but because of the WOWGR rules, it created a lot of confusion amongst collectors and owners regarding the transfer of ownership of a cask held in a warehouse from the warehouse keeper to the individual.
As WOWGR was specifically aimed at what the law defined as “revenue traders” and there was no definition of a private owner, it led to a lot of confusion amongst all of the relevant parties when it came to registering and transferring ownership.
This meant that in some cases private owners were led to believe that they had to sign up as a registered owner and needed permission from the warehouse keeper to transfer ownership.
This confusion is one of several reasons why the law has been significantly amended.
Why Is It Being Amended?
WOWGR succeeded in its aim of closing tax loopholes, but by the 2010s the benefits had disappeared but the problems had only magnified due to the confusion surrounding ownership.
Wine and fuel were not included in the scheme despite accounting for half of the duty suspended products in warehouses, and in 2022 His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs agreed that WOWGR in its current form was neither effective nor proportionate.
The WOWGR rules were already in breach of EU regulations that have been retained even after the UK left the European Union, leading to multiple long-running campaigns to remove them.
What Happens Next?
As of 3rd March 2025, only warehouse keepers need to be registered, meaning that all owners of warehoused goods are treated the same and are not subject to the lengthy and onerous WOWGR process.
There are other standard obligations surrounding warehouses, but the removal of WOWGR from the equation means that private owners can theoretically own as many as they like, although the exact change in arrangements may vary depending on the warehouse itself.