No investigation in four years for illegal tobacco by at least nine councils, FOI data reveals

At least nine local authorities nationwide did not start a single investigation into the sale of illegal or counterfeit tobacco products from 2018 to 2022, a new research has found.

The nine authorities were: Calderdale, East Dunbartonshire, Isle of Anglesey County Council, Rochdale, Havering, Lambeth, City of London, Kingston upon Thames, and York.

Other councils, such as Hull, have taken robust action to tackle the issue, with 249 investigations and 53 prosecutions, more than any other council. Middlesbrough was also relatively active in this area, with 416 investigations, and 15 prosecutions.

Responses to Freedom of Information requests sent to 96 councils across England and Wales have shown significant variation between the approaches taken by local councils.

Councils in London (Kingston), Manchester (Rochdale), Wales (Isle of Anglesey County Council), and Scotland (East Dunbartonshire) were amongst those taking no action.

Commenting on the data, Sarah Connor, communications director at JTI UK, said: “Some councils’ poor enforcement of existing laws raises doubts about their ability and capacity to enforce a more complex generational ban. Illegal tobacco is already a significant issue, and the generational ban has the potential to worsen this, by driving adult smokers to buy cigarettes from organised gangs.”

The government is consulting on a proposal to raise the smoking age by one year every year, potentially phasing out smoking among young people almost completely as soon as 2040.

JTI noted that lack of action by councils will ‘undoubtedly lead’ to increased sales of illegal tobacco, which is often linked to organised crime, and contributing to the large tobacco tax gap.

This gap, as estimated by HMRC, is the difference between the amount of tax that should, in theory, be paid to HMRC, and what is actually paid. Since 2018, £9.3 billion in tax revenue has been lost in this way. In 2021-22, alone, the tax gap was £2.2 billion.

According to the Police Federation, £2.2 billion could pay for more than 77,000 new police officers.

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