Smoking age may rise every year to stop kids starting

ALL young people should be banned from ever smoking by raising the legal age for buying cigarettes by a year every 12 months, a report will suggest today.

It would see the legal age – currently 18 – constantly increasing.

If this happened now, a current 17-yearold would never be entitled to buy cigarettes because they would not reach the legal threshold. The minimum age for buying cigarettes and other tobacco products was raised from 16 to 18 in England, Scotland and Wales in 2007. Health Secretary Sajid Javid said officials are considering ‘radical ways’ to make the UK ‘smoke-free’ by 2030.

The term means 5 per cent of the population or under would be tobacco users.

Yesterday Mr Javid refused to be drawn on claims that a review of smoking policy would recommend raising the legal age from 18.

He commissioned Javed Khan, former chief of children’s charity Barnardo’s, to produce the review which is expected recommend copying New Zealand’s approach.

New Zealand said last year that anyone born after 2008 will never be able to buy cigarettes, with the legal age raised by a year every year later this decade. The policy is aimed at killing off smoking entirely by preventing younger generations ever starting.

However, it is understood UK ministers will reject the proposal in favour of other measures, including the prescribing of e-cigarettes on the NHS.

The Government could also agree to raise the legal age from 18 to 21. There are currently six million smokers in England. Tobacco use increased by 25 per cent among the under-30s during the pandemic – a rise of more than 600,000 smokers in that age bracket. However, overall rates have been falling for the past two decades to under 15 per cent.

About 8 per cent of adults now vape, including 24 per cent of exsmokers. Public health experts claim it is 95 per cent safer than smoking tobacco. Mr Javid, who gave up smoking after becoming Health Secretary last year, told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘One thing I am very keen on is tackling the health disparities that exist in our country...

‘Our biggest killer is cancer and the biggest cause of that, of course, is smoking, and that is why I commissioned an independent review by Javed Khan.

‘That review is almost complete... I’m not going to pre-empt what’s in it. But it is right that we look at ways, radical ways, to reduce smoking rates in this country. They have come down significantly to around 15 per cent of adults. We have a commitment in our manifesto to have a smoke-free Britain – that’s getting prevalence down to 5 per cent or less, by 2030. I’m determined that we do that.’

Simon Clark, of smokers’ group Forest, said: ‘You don’t have to be 21 to know that smoking is potentially harmful to your health – it’s drummed into every child from an early age. If you can legally have sex at 16, drive a car at 17 and purchase alcohol at 18, you should be allowed to make an informed choice to buy tobacco at 18.

‘In the eyes of the law you are an adult at 18 and you should be treated like one.’

The Khan review is also expected to support new taxes on tobacco company profits. It was commissioned to provide advice to the Government to help reduce inequalities linked to smoking and identify the ‘most impactful interventions’ to halt the habit.

‘Radical ways to reduce rates’