The age at which people can buy cigarettes and tobacco in England should increase annually – adding a year in age each time – so that at some point no one will be able to buy them, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has said.
The proposal must be voted on in the British Parliament and, according to Sunak, all parliamentarians will be free to vote as they wish.
According to the plan, the age for purchasing would increase by one year every year, starting from the minimum age of 18 – so, for example, a teenager who is currently 14 years old would never be allowed to buy cigarettes in their lifetime.
The idea was presented after a study commissioned by the government in 2022.
During a speech at the Conservative Party conference, Sunak said he believed this was the right way to tackle the main preventable cause of ill health.
Smoking increases the risk of strokes, heart disease, dementia and mothers with stillborn babies, as well as causing one in four cancer deaths.
“There is no safe level of smoking,” he said.
Smoking rates have been falling since the 1970s. But there are still more than 5 million smokers in England and 6 million across the UK.
Currently, one in nine young people between the ages of 18 and 24 smokes, according to the British Office for National Statistics.
“If we want to do the right thing by our children, we must try to stop teenagers taking up smoking in the first place,” Sunak told the conference.
“Because without significant change, thousands of children will start smoking in the coming years and their lives will be cut short.”
“Four out of every five smokers started smoking by the age of 20. Later, the vast majority try to stop, but many cannot because they are addicted.”
/i.s3.glbimg.com/v1/AUTH_59edd422c0c84a879bd37670ae4f538a/internal_photos/bs/2023/T/l/ZFDw80R5upYxJRWwXPhw/vz23x.png "The British government's curious plan so that no one can buy cigarettes anymore 4")
End smoking by 2030
The idea of gradually raising the age to legally buy cigarettes was put forward last year by Javed Khan, former chief executive of the children and teenagers charity Barnard.
The institution was tasked by government ministers with finding new approaches to combat smoking.
At that time, the government, led by Boris Johnson, said such a measure was unlikely to be approved.
But Sunak decided to support this initiative as a way of meeting the government’s ambition for England to be smoke-free by 2030 – a target that will only be achieved when less than 5% of the population are smokers.
Regarding the vote in Parliament, the prime minister said that conservative parliamentarians will not be instructed on how to vote.
“It’s a question of conscience – and I want all of you and the country to know where mine lies,” said the prime minister.
The proposal to raise the selling age for cigarettes is similar to laws being introduced in New Zealand, where the purchase of tobacco products is prohibited for anyone born after 2008.
Sunak also said the government would consider restricting the sale of e-cigarettes and would look at the devices’ flavorings and packaging to combat rising rates of use by children.
One option could be a complete ban on its sale.
Michelle Mitchell, from Cancer Research UK, one of the largest independent cancer research organisations, said the announcement about the proposal was a “critical step”.
“If it is implemented, the Prime Minister will deserve great credit for putting the health of UK citizens ahead of the interests of the tobacco lobby.”
Deborah Arnott, from campaign group Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said what was announced was an “unprecedented” set of measures that could bring forward the day when smoking becomes obsolete.
BBC
