Tobacco: Sales

(asked on 7th December 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent discussions her Department has had with relevant stakeholders on the proposed generational ban on tobacco products.


Answered by
Andrea Leadsom Portrait
Andrea Leadsom
Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
This question was answered on 19th December 2023

Smoking is responsible for around 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom and causes around one in four cancer deaths in the UK. It also costs our country £17 billion a year and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service.

This is why the Government is planning to create a smokefree generation by bringing forward legislation so that children turning 14 years old this year or younger will never be legally sold tobacco products.

In development of this policy, we have, and will continue to, speak to a broad range of local and regional stakeholders. In line with the UK’s obligations under the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, we will not engage with stakeholders who have links to the tobacco industry when developing this policy.

A public consultation on the Smokefree Generation policies closed on 6 December and received contributions from a broad range of stakeholders. The Department of Health and Social Care will respond to the consultation in the coming weeks.

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