Legal age for buying cigarettes should rise by a year every year until no-one can get them, review recommends

The age at which someone can legally buy cigarettes in England should rise by a year every year until no one can get them, a government-commissioned review has found.

The plans would create a “smokefree generation”, with people under a certain age unable to buy cigarettes and other tobacco products in their lifetime – similar to New Zealand which has banned the sale of cigarettes anyone born after 2008.

Raising the age at which people can buy tobacco products, currently 18, is seen as crucial in order to reach the government’s ‘Smokefree 2030’ ambition – defined as less than 5% of the population smoking – but the government is reported to be split over the plans.

What else does the review reccomend?

The delayed “landmark review” by Dr Javed Khan, the former chief executive of Barnardo’s, was released this morning.

It found England is currently on track to miss its smokefree 2030 target “by at least 7 years”, with the poorest areas in society not meeting it until 2044.

“To have any chance of hitting the smokefree 2030 target, we need to accelerate the rate of decline of people who smoke, by 40%,” the report said.

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The government has been urged to ban all online sales of tobacco products, and ban supermarkets from selling them.

Other recommendations include increasing investment by £125 million per year to reach the government’s 2030 target, including £70 million annually in stop smoking services.

Dr Khan’s report also recommends the promotion of vaping, including prescribed vapes, saying: “We know vapes are not a ‘silver bullet’ nor are they totally risk-free, but the alternative is far worse.”

The report also recommends the NHS offers smokers advice and support to quit “at every interaction they have with health services, whether that be through GPs, hospitals, psychiatrists, midwives, pharmacists, dentists or optometrists”.

Currently, smoking costs the National Health Service £2.5 billion per year.

‘I urge the government to make smoking obselete’

Dr Khan wrote: “Smoking kills and ruins lives. But it doesn’t have to be like that.

By commissioning this review, the government sent out a powerful message that the status quo is not acceptable. I have taken on that challenge and responded with recommendations that are as comprehensive as they are bold.

“Anything less would have been an abdication of my duty. We now need to make it as hard as possible to smoke, and as easy as possible to quit, leading to a smokefree generation.”

He added: “To truly achieve a smokefree society in this great country of ours, smoking should be obsolete. I cannot, in all conscience, endorse a strategy that settles for anything less.

“So, I am asking the government to go further than its current ambitions. It needs to go faster. It needs to be bolder. It needs to do more to protect future generations from this highly addictive and deadly product. Along the way, the government should do all it can to dissuade the tobacco industry from selling tobacco products.

“The ambition for tackling smoking should aim for ‘net zero’ – to make smoking obsolete.”

There are a reported six million smokers in England, and 46% of people don’t feel the government is doing enough to limit smoking.

Smoking remains the single biggest cause of preventable illness and death, the report said.

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