Tobacco: Smuggling

(asked on 22nd October 2020) - View Source

Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the flow of counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco products into the UK.


Answered by
Kemi Badenoch Portrait
Kemi Badenoch
President of the Board of Trade
This question was answered on 2nd November 2020

Since 2000, the government’s anti- illicit tobacco strategy has successfully reduced the cigarette tax gap from 22% in 2000-01 to 9% in 2019-20, and for hand rolling tobacco (HRT) from 61% to 34%. Key to this success has been the continual refresh of the strategy based on HMRC’s reassessment of the risks and any emerging threats.

In 2015, HMRC and Border Force published the latest refreshed strategy ‘Tackling Illicit Tobacco- leaf to light’. This stated the government’s intention to take the fight against illicit tobacco wider, joining up interests across UK government and a variety of partner agencies, including local authority Trading Standards teams, the police and other government departments.

This approach has seen a sustained effort against all types of illicit tobacco. In the year 2018-19, over 1.3bn illicit cigarettes and 140 tonnes of illicit HRT were seized and there were over 270 convictions for tobacco related offences.

Measures specifically targeted at counterfeit tobacco include the introduction of the Raw Tobacco Approval and Tobacco Machinery Licensing Schemes. HMRC has also introduced a track and trace system for tobacco products and new on-pack authenticity features. These initiatives make it more difficult and costly to counterfeit tobacco in the UK and for any form of illicit tobacco to enter our legitimate supply chains.

However, the government is not complacent, organised criminals continually respond to enforcement activity by diversifying but we remain confident in HMRC’s ability to recognise and respond to this under the existing strategy. The government will keep the need for a strategy refresh under review.

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