Now SNP to bring in minimum pricing for cigarettes

Plan for £15 a packet

THE cost of cigarettes could be raised to £15 a pack in Scotland under radical plans to introduce minimum pricing for tobacco.

Ministers are ‘carefully considering’ duplicating the strategy brought in to try to curb problem drinking in a bid to get Scots to stub out their cigarette habit.

The numbers of smokers in Scotland is rising again, figures show.

And experts warn the Government risks missing a key target of producing a ‘smoke-free generation’ by 2034 – with calls for greater investment in stop smoking mass media campaigns.

Now The Scottish Mail on Sunday can reveal that Government advisers are looking at how minimum pricing for smoking would work, and how successful it has been elsewhere in the world.

Ministers believe it could be introduced in the same way as minimum pricing for alcohol was in 2017, with ‘compliance conditions’ for retailers. However, a

‘Those who can will buy packs in England’

study by NHS Scotland published this year found minimum pricing for alcohol has not cut drinking levels among teenagers.

Young Scots who want to carry on boozing, are able to ‘fund the additional cost’, researchers found.

The Government has not yet decided what the minimum price for tobacco should be, but experts have highlighted prices in countries where cigarettes are much more expensive, such as Australia.

It could mean the cost of a pack of 20 Marlboro cigarettes rises to at least £15 – 32 per cent more than the current supermarket price of around £11.39.

The cheapest packs of 20 cigarettes can cost as little as £8.69.

Linda Bauld, Professor of public health at Edinburgh University, said: ‘More ambitious policies are going to be required if we are to reach the target of 5 per cent smoking prevalence by 2034.

‘These should be added to continued enforcement of existing policies and funding for stop smoking services. We need to look at pricing and availability in particular. A minimum price for tobacco may be particularly important to help reduce smoking in groups that are price-sensitive, like younger smokers and people in deprived areas.’

Simon Clark, of smokers’ rights group Forest, said: ‘Minimum pricing will discriminate against poorer smokers. Those who can will buy their tobacco abroad or in England. Others may be driven to the unregulated black market.’

The Scottish Government said: ‘‘Increasing prices has been shown to reduce demand and we will carefully consider research into the potential impact of such a move.’