Age restricted tobacco sales will fail without proper enforcement, warns CTSI

The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) has welcomed the Khan Review ‘Making smoking obsolete’, but warned that increasing the age of sale from 18 by one year, every year, will require significant enforcement action to ensure businesses comply. 

CTSI has also welcomed the proposal to enhance local illicit tobacco enforcement by investing £15 million to tackle the illicit market.

Welcoming the review, John Herriman, Chief Executive, CTSI said that raising the age of sale, year on year, is a radical attempt to “de-normalise” smoking for future generations. 

“We would welcome clarity on how the year-on-year age restriction in sales will work, and Trading Standards professionals stand ready to support through enforcement, test purchasing and monitoring. 

“Increasing age restrictions is a bold move but the effectiveness of this, could stand or fall, based on how robustly we deal with underage sales and the trade in illicit tobacco which could  undermine such major attempts to reduce smoking levels and achieve government targets,”Herriman said.

“CTSI has previously raised concerns that the arrangements to test out whether businesses are selling to people under the age of sale are “patchy” and “sporadic” and will require further investment in order for us to fully understand the whether the law of the land is being undermined by crooked and unscrupulous businesses.” 

CTSI’s latest Tobacco Control Survey (2020) – and the last year it was commissioned by DHSC, found that over 90 percent of Councils had to deal with complaints and enquiries in relation to underage sales. 

“We would urge the government to implement the recommendations to invest in local illicit tobacco enforcement, such as Operation CeCe to tackle the trade in illegal tobacco at the local level.  And we also believe that further measures may be needed to deal with the potential growth in sales on platforms such as online platforms and marketplaces on social media,” he said.

Other key proposals in the new tobacco control review include an additional £125 million a year to be invested in smoke-free policies, promoting vapes as an effective “swap to stop” tool and introducing tobacco licences for retailers to limit its availability across the country.smokers to quit.