By Alphie Valentine, co-founder, Hackstons

Most people in my position write to government to ask for less regulation. This week, we did the opposite – we wrote to the Prime Minister asking for more.

Ahead of Andy Burnham’s first Budget, we’ve made a public call for transparency standards and proportionate oversight in the cask whisky market. It might seem a strange thing for a cask whisky company to ask for. I think it’s the most important thing anyone in this industry could be asking for right now – and here’s why.

Is whisky cask investment regulated in the UK?

No – and this is the single most important thing to understand before you buy.

A whisky cask is treated in law as a physical “wasting asset,” not a financial product. That means cask sellers do not need to be authorised by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), and buyers are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme (FSCS) or the Financial Ombudsman Service if a company collapses, disappears or misleads them. When HMRC simplified the bonded-warehouse ownership rules in 2025, even the modest layer of vetting that used to apply to some private owners thinned out.

None of that makes cask whisky a scam. The whisky itself is one of Britain’s great success stories. The problem isn’t the product – it’s the market that has grown up around it.

What happens when a market has no rules?

We’ve all seen where the gap leads. The BBC has investigated cask investment scams. The advertising watchdog has repeatedly pulled up firms for promoting exaggerated or “guaranteed” returns that were never realistic. And in 2025 one of the sector’s best-known operators collapsed, reportedly leaving thousands of ordinary people exposed on casks they’d been told were safe.

Every one of those stories does two kinds of damage. It devastates real families. And it tars the honest majority of the trade with the same brush – because right now, there is no way for a consumer to tell the difference between a serious operator and a confident salesperson with a website.

Why would a cask whisky company ask to be regulated?

Because the firms doing this properly have nothing to fear from transparency and everything to gain from it.

Transparency is the single thing that separates a genuine cask business from a scam: proof that a real cask exists, that it’s held in your name, and a clear picture of exactly what you’re paying and how you’ll one day sell. At the moment, the law requires none of that. It should. Rules don’t threaten the good operators – they protect them, and they protect the people who trust them. This is even more important when the market is down – as this just attracts more unscrupulous operators looking to take advantage – so now more than ever protecting would be investors is a priority.

What we’re asking the Prime Minister to do

Ahead of the Budget, we’ve urged the government to consider four things:

• Proportionate oversight – bring cask investment inside a sensible regulatory perimeter, whether through the FCA or a dedicated licensing regime for cask sellers, designed for what this market actually is.
• Mandatory transparency – require verifiable proof of ownership in the buyer’s own name, independent confirmation from the bonded warehouse, plain-English disclosure of every fee and the true cost and route of exit, and an end to unsubstantiated return projections.
• An accredited register – a public list, or a recognised kitemark, so a first-time buyer can see in seconds who meets the standard, and so the fraudsters have nowhere left to hide.
• Treat it as industrial strategy, not red tape – this is a high-value British export that supports skilled jobs in Scotland and across the regions. Protecting the consumers who fund it protects the industry itself.

That last point speaks to the government the Prime Minister has set out to lead. He has promised to move power and money out of Westminster and into every part of the country. Cask whisky is exactly that – value created in Scotland and the regions, owned by people the length and breadth of Britain. Smart, light-touch protection here isn’t anti-business. It’s pro-consumer, pro-growth, and good for the Exchequer.

What this means if you’re thinking about buying a cask

You don’t have to wait for the law to catch up to protect yourself. Until it does, hold any cask business to the standard the rules should already require. Before you buy, insist on:

• proof the cask is held in your name – a delivery order, not just a certificate from the seller;
• independent confirmation from the bonded warehouse that your cask exists and is yours;
• every fee, in writing, for the whole time you’ll own the cask;
• a clear route and cost to sell when the time comes;
• and real scepticism toward anyone guaranteeing a fixed return.

These are the standards we hold ourselves to at Hackstons, and they’re the standards we believe every buyer deserves – whoever they buy from.

The ask stands

The good operators in this industry aren’t resisting reform. We’re the ones asking for it. As the Budget approaches, our message to the Prime Minister is simple: back the people who love whisky and the industry that makes it, and give this market the honesty and the guardrails it has lacked for too long.

We’ll keep making that case until it’s heard.

Alphie Valentine is co-founder of Hackstons and has publicly called for greater transparency and consumer protection in the cask whisky market.

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