As part of the King’s Speech, the Government proposed a bill to create a “smoke-free generation”.
Rishi Sunak had previously expressed his support for such a ban at the Tory Party Conference and the legislature will also limit the sale of vapes to youngsters – the prime minister having previously said he worried his young daughters might be tempted by colourful packaging to start the addictive habit.
The King said on Tuesday : “My government will introduce legislation to create a smoke free generation by restricting the sale of tobacco so that children currently aged 14 or younger can never be sold cigarettes, and to restrict the sale and marketing of e-cigarettes to children.”
This means that children born on January 1, 2009, or later will never legally be allowed to buy cigarettes.
The move has been welcomed by anti-smoking charity ASH but, predictably, slammed by smoking lobby Forest as “treating consenting adults like children”.
Mr Sunak, who has never smoked a cigarette, previously said: “Four in five smokers have started by the time they’re 20. Later, the vast majority try to quit but many fail because they’re addicted and they wish they had never taken up the habit in the first place.
“If we could break that cycle – if we could stop the start – then we would be on our way to ending the biggest cause of preventable death and disease in our country.”
What other countries have introduced a similar ban?
New Zealand in 2022 passed what was thought to be the world’s first steadily rising smoking age for those aged 14 and under. The country has said it wants to be smoke-free by 2025 – meaning when five per cent or fewer residents smoke.Sweden has also put into practice a plan to ban the sale of cigarettes to those born from January 1, 2009, to try to eliminate smoking.
Where are the UK’s smoking hotspots according to the ONS?
A 2022 study on adult smoking habits in the UK revealed that 12.9 per cent of those aged 18 and over smoked cigarettes, equating to 6.4 million people. This was the lowest proportion of smokers ever recorded since records began in 2011.
The ONS report also showed that the lowest proportion of smokers were based in England with 12.7 per cent, followed by Scotland (13.9 per cent), Northern Ireland (14 per cent), and Wales (14.1 per cent).
People aged 25 to 34 had the highest proportion of current smokers in the UK (16.3 per cent), and those aged 65 years and over had the lowest (8.3 per cent) in 2022.
As for the smoking hotspots of the nation, Kingston upon Hull and Blackpool were among the 10 local authorities with the highest proportion of current smokers since 2012, with 18.9 per cent and 18.8 per cent, respectively.
Across England, the local regions with the lowest levels of smoking were Stafford, with 2.9 per cent, and Rushcliffe, with four per cent.
