Call to raise legal smoking age to 21

THE LEGAL age to buy cigarettes should be raised from 18 to 21 as part of efforts to deliver a “smokefree generation”, a group of MPs and peers has said.

The parliamentarians are also calling for tobacco giants to be charged for the impact they have on society, with the millions raised channelled into stopsmoking initiatives. Taxes on tobacco products should also be raised to reduce their affordability and put people off, the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health said.

Its chairman, the Conservative MP Bob Blackman, said: “Smoking remains the leading cause of premature death and health inequalities. Ratcheting up tobacco regulation further and faster is essential to achieve the Government’s vision for prevention, to increase healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035 while reducing inequalities between the richest and poorest in society.”

Other measures proposed by the group include banning the sale of tobacco from unlicensed retailers or those who break laws on who should be sold to and spending more on educational campaigns and making manufacturers insert stop-smoking information cards inside packs.

The group also wants to tighten rules on smoking in television programmes and films.

The group said that while the Health Secretary’s commitment to fund stop-smoking services is welcome, treatment “is only part of the solution”.

The British Lung Foundation welcomed the recommendations. Chief executive Penny Woods said: “A ‘polluter pays levy’ could raise at least £150m. This money, which the highly profitable tobacco industry can easily afford, could fund cash-strapped stopsmoking services and discourage young people from ever lighting up.”