The Government has brought forward the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to ensure that children aged 15 or younger - anyone born on or after 1 April 2009 – can never legally be sold tobacco products. By 2040, these proposals will ensure that smoking is phased out completely among young people.
This ambition to create a smokefree generation is challenging, but achievable and I know that the UK is a world leader in successfully reducing smoking prevalence, with one of the lowest rates of tobacco use in Europe.
As the single leading behavioural cause of preventable death across our country, responsible for around one in four cancer deaths and 80,000 preventable deaths per year, reducing smoking is crucial for ensuring we live longer, healthier lives.
It is also one of the biggest drivers of health inequalities across the country – deaths from smoking are more than two times higher in the most deprived local authorities, where more people smoke, compared to the most affluent.
The difference between tobacco and other legal products is that there is no safe level of smoking. Smoking cannot be part of a balanced lifestyle or diet in the way sugar, salt or alcohol for example can.
The proposed new legislation, which is widely supported by 73% of adults in Great Britain, effectively raises the smoking age by a year each year until it applies to the whole population. All tobacco products - including heated tobacco and herbal smoking products - are included in the scope of the Bill. In addition, I want to clarify that a national licence scheme is not being proposed.
Thus, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill will ensure that children aged 15 or younger - anyone born on or after 1 April 2009 – can never legally be sold tobacco products. This Bill will focus on those who sell tobacco products or buy them on behalf of someone else. Let me be clear this will not affect current smokers' rights. It is important to note that smoking itself will not be criminalised, and anyone who can legally buy tobacco now will not be prevented from doing so in future.
To support existing smokers to quit, we are also more than doubling the existing budget for stop smoking services in England, investing an additional £70 million a year (to a total of around £138 million) over the next five years to expand locally delivered and cost-effective services. In total, our funding will support around 360,000 people to quit smoking a year. We will also be providing an additional £5 million this year and then £15 million a year thereafter to fund national anti-smoking marketing campaigns to explain the changes, the benefits of quitting and support available. This will be new funding.
I understand there are concerns raising the age of tobacco may lead to a growth in the illicit tobacco trade. However, when the smoking age was increased from 16 to 18, I understand that the number of illicit cigarettes consumed fell by 25 per cent, and smoking rates for 16- and 17-year-olds dropped by almost a third. In addition, the consumption of illegal tobacco plummeted from 17 billion cigarettes in 2000/01 to 3 billion cigarettes in 2022-23.
This will be one of the most significant public health interventions in a generation, saving tens of thousands of lives and saving the NHS billions of pounds. As someone who lost both their parents to the impact of smoking, I see this as a brave and needed stance.
