As part of a long-term plan to protect young people from the harms of smoking the Government will be bringing forward new legislation to restrict the sale of tobacco products in England for children born on or after 1 January 2009.
The new Tobacco and Vapes Bill will effectively raise the age of sale by one year each year, meaning children currently aged fourteen or younger can never be legally sold cigarettes.
With a free vote due in Parliament, Burnley and Padiham’s MP Antony Higginbotham has come out in support. Speaking about the proposal he said:
For as long as I can remember the message on smoking has been clear. I can see the slogans now. ‘Smoking Kills.’ And the evidence is there too, with it being the single biggest preventable cause of ill health and being responsible for around one-in-four cancer deaths.
But for too long we’ve skirted around how to tackle this and allowed yet another generation take up the habit. This despite the fact that I’ve not met a local parent in our borough who has said they’d want their child to take up smoking.
Finding a way of tackling the issue is hard, with no easy answers. But this approach seems to strike the best balance. It protects freedom of choice for those who already smoke, whilst also offering ways to quit too. And for those who we can protect, because they’ve never known a smoking area in a pub, and never bought a cigarette before, we can do so. By preventing them taking up the habit in the first place.
The Bill will also crack down on youth vaping following the significant rise in vaping among teenagers. The Government is currently consulting on new measures to reduce the appeal, availability and affordability of vapes for children and young people, while ensuring that they remain an effective tool for helping adult smokers to quit.
The legislation will strengthen enforcement activity to tackle illicit sales, including introducing on-the-spot fines for rogue retailers who sell tobacco products or vapes to people underage.
Non-legislative measures will be introduced alongside the Bill, cracking down on illegal online sales by enhancing online age verification, increasing funding for enforcement agencies by £30 million a year, and taking action to track down and remove illicit tobacco and vaping products from the market.
Collectively, these changes amount to one of the most significant public health interventions in a generation to protect the health of our children and grandchildren.
Smoking will not be criminalised, and the phased approach means anyone who can legally buy cigarettes now will not be prevented from doing so in future.
Commenting, Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said:
Smoking kills, places a huge burden on the NHS and costs the economy billions every year.
Through this landmark step we will protect our children, grandchildren and the health service from the dangers of smoking long into the future.
And while vaping is an effective tool for adults quitting smoking, we are determined to tackle the concerning surge in children vaping, driven by marketing and flavouring which appears to specifically target young people.
