The bill has cleared parliament
A lifelong ban on young people buying cigarettes is set to come into force after a landmark bill cleared Parliament.
The bill will also possess new powers to regulate tobacco, vaping and nicotine products which include matters such as flavours and packaging.
Who will the bill affect?
The bill is aimed at young people specifically and will see an entire generation cut out from legally purchasing cigarettes, making smoking a lot harder to access.
The bill affects anyone born after 1 January 2009 and means children in the UK 17-year-old or younger will be prohibited from purchasing cigarettes.
On a greater scale, this new law will affect everyone who smokes to some degree, as ID checking similar to alcohol will have to be introduced to enforce the change.
Going forward, this will go beyond the ID checks similar to ‘Check 25’ as the ban will track with the age of the oldest year group to prohibited.
This means in a few decades time – if the ban is still in place – people in their 30s and 40s could be getting ID checked.
Why such a strict ban?
The banning of an entire generation from an activity such as smoking is pretty radical with very little precedent in British law.
However, the government believe they are not without reason in enforcing such blanket measures.
It has been common knowledge for decades that smoking is very bad for the human body and is a direct cause of millions of cancer cases would wide each year.
As per the NHS, smoking is still the single largest preventable cause of death in England, estimated to account for 64,000 deaths each year.
In 2022-23, there were an estimated 400,000 hospital admissions in England due to smoking while one in four hospital patients is a smoker.
This goes without mentioning smoking as an auxiliary factor in many health issues.
In 2015, smoking cost the NHS £2.6bn while more recent estimates from 2024 from the Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) suggest a cost of £1.9bn.
ASH also suggest that smoking costs £1.2bn in social care costs to local authorities while £18.3bn is lost productivity.
The ban, therefore, is an attempt at making people healthier, as well as saving billions that are spent on the issue by the NHS and the nation as a whole.
What other measures are being introduced?
The smokefree generation is not the only big change on the way, with clauses also targeting vaping.
Vaping will be banned in cars carrying children, in playgrounds and outside schools and at hospitals, expanding smoke-free laws.
However, vaping would still be permitted outside hospitals in support of those trying to quit.
Pub gardens and wider open spaces are not included in the plans.
People will also be able to continue smoking and vaping in their homes.
What the lawmakers said
Health minister Baroness Merron told the Lords on Monday: “This afternoon marks the end of this Bill’s journey throughout Parliament.
“It is a landmark Bill, it will create a smoke-free generation.
“It is, in fact, the biggest public health intervention in a generation and I can assure all noble Lords it will save lives.”
The bill was not without opposition, as Lord Naseby, a Conservative former MP, said the Tobacco and Vapes Bill “does upset a great many people in that industry”, including retailers.
He added: “What we really need is a proper understanding of how we educate people not to take up smoking.”
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