Content provided by JTI.

The UK government has proposed new tobacco legislation that would ban future generations of adults from ever legally being sold tobacco products.

The legislation is currently being drafted, and if approved, will affect all retailers that sell tobacco products in the UK.

The consultation period has ended, but there is still time for retailers to take action and ensure their voices are heard. The best way to do this is for retailers to contact their local MP to express any concerns they may have around the proposed ban.

See below for a draft template letter.

Tobacco remains an important category for over 70% of convenience retailers when it comes to generating footfall in-store. Whilst the proposed ban isn’t impacting retailers directly today, the ban will have serious repercussions in the years to come, so it is incredibly important for retailers to have their say now.

What is the proposed legislation?

The proposed legislation would see the minimum age at which a person can be sold tobacco products, including cigarettes, cigars and heated tobacco, increase each year, starting in 2027. This means that the minimum smoking age in 2027 would be 19, rising to 20 in 2028, with one year added each subsequent year that passes. Therefore, anyone born on or after 1st January 2009 will never legally be allowed to be sold tobacco products.

What does this mean for you?

By 2037, 28-year-olds won’t legally be able to buy tobacco products, but 29-year-olds will. Retailers will be expected to distinguish this difference when deciding whom to sell tobacco products to. The UK Government, Scotland, Wales and NI will also make it an offence for anyone at or over the legal age to purchase tobacco products on behalf of someone born on or after 1 January 2009 (‘proxy purchasing’).

Retailer concerns around the Generational Ban

Retailers have expressed concerns around enforcement of the law, its impact on illicit trade and the threat of increased violence against shopkeepers.

• A recent survey* from JTI found that 55% of retailers are worried that the proposed changes will make ID checks more complicated for their staff.
• Over two-thirds (67%) of the retailers surveyed said that the generational tobacco ban would likely lead to an increase in illicit tobacco activity.
• The survey also found that 62% of retailers believe that the generational ban will be costly to their business in terms of implementation.

“It’s difficult to see how this proposed tobacco ban would be properly enforced. It’s a deeply impractical law.” Atul Sodha, Londis Harefield

“I have no doubt that this ban would simply hand more of the UK tobacco market into the hands of criminals.” Nishi Patel, Londis Bexley Park

“It’s fair to say that the proposed ban would highly likely drive a further increase in threatening behaviour against retailers.” Paul Cheema, owner of Malcolm’s Convenience and Forecourt

You can still have your say

There is still time for your voice to be heard. The time to act is now. Contact your local MP to raise your concerns directly here. Find yours here or scan the QR code.

For now, it’s business as usual, the legislation has not been published and this is yet to be voted on in Parliament. Retailers should continue to sell tobacco products as normal to keep profiting from the category.

See below for a draft template letter from The TMA (Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association) for retailers to use.

Dear ………………………

I am writing to you as one of your constituents who owns, operates and works in a convenience store in your constituency.

I have major concerns about the ‘phased generational smoking ban’ that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has committed to making law. If implemented, this policy will have unintended, yet serious, consequences, which I do not believe have properly been considered.

As a retailer, my staff and I, are already working desperately hard, trying to recover from the devastating effects of the COVID pandemic and support our local community through this ‘cost- of-living’ crisis. The burden of implementing a ‘phased generational ban’ will fall almost entirely on the shoulders of retailers, and threatens to criminalise us for selling tobacco to adults.

Within a year of the law coming into effect, we will be faced with the extraordinary situation where two 18-year-olds will walk into my shop. One 18-year-old born in 2008 will be able to buy a pack of cigarettes, while another 18-year-old born in 2009 will be prohibited from doing so. The second 18-year-old will legally be allowed to buy alcohol and a National Lottery scratch card, like his/her friend, but they won’t be able to buy any tobacco – just how is a retailer expected to enforce this policy?

It will reach a point where my staff and I will be expected to distinguish between 36-year-olds and 37-year-olds when deciding to whom we are allowed sell tobacco products. Every year, the ‘proof of age’ requirements will change and the only way my staff and I will be able to ensure we are not breaking the law, will be for us to ask any consumers who want to buy tobacco to present photographic ID. Many people do not routinely carry photographic ID, and checking ID for every sale, will significantly slow down transactions in-store.

USDAW, the British Retail Consortium and the Retail Trust have all recently reported on the soaring levels of crime towards retailers, with more than 860 incidents of violence and verbal abuse against retail staff taking place every day, and 66% of staff saying they felt stressed and anxious about going to work and 42% considering quitting their jobs or leaving retail altogether. Since COVID, a retail crime epidemic is blighting the UK, and overstretched police and trading standards officers are struggling to keep pace with the criminals.

It will be the responsibility of retailers like me, and my staff, to enforce this ‘phased generational ban’, and it is highly likely that it will drive an escalation in more threatening and intimidating behaviour against retailers.

Smuggled tobacco already costs us law-abiding retailers thousands of pounds as larger numbers of smokers switch to cheaper, un-taxed and un-regulated illegal products. A ‘phased generational ban’ will hand more and more of the UK tobacco market to criminals every year and threatens to fuel the profits of organised criminal gangs which corrupt our local communities with crime, violence and disorder up and down the country.

A major proportion of turnover for many stores is from the sale and purchase of tobacco and nicotine products (for many of us, convenience retailers, between 20%-25% of our annual sales come from these products), in addition to which consumers who buy tobacco, often purchase other ‘every day’ products, like newspapers, confectionery, milk, bread, eggs etc. at the same time. The importance of tobacco as a driver of footfall will be seriously undermined if a ‘phased generational ban’ leads to a further increase in the illegal trade – depriving law-abiding retailers from the income of tobacco sales, and from the purchase of other products.

The Government stated in its policy paper “Stopping the start: our new plan to create a smokefree generation” (8 November 2023) that 4 in 5 smokers start smoking before they are 20 years old. If the Prime Minister wants to meet the same objective of stopping young people from taking up smoking, there is a more effective policy solution that can deliver the same outcome.

Instead of legislating a complicated, impractical, unworkable and unenforceable generational ban, I urge the Government to introduce a phased increase in the purchase age of tobacco to 21 years of age. This alternative policy would ensure that there was much less probability of any children ever being able to buy legal tobacco, would be more straightforward for retailers to enforce and would still significantly contribute to reducing smoking rates among young people.

I urge you to contact the Prime Minister and support an alternative policy of a phased increase in the age of purchase to 21 years of age (a phased increase in the age of purchase from 18 years old to 21 years old, will mean that anyone who can legally be sold tobacco now will not be prevented from doing so in the future, which still meets the Government’s objective of not removing the rights of any existing smokers). The proposal for a generational smoking ban is well-intentioned, but it will bring about calamitous consequences if it becomes law.

Yours sincerely, ………………………………………………………………..

*Research conducted with 1,000 independent and symbol convenience retailers by Acorn Retail Promotions on behalf of JTI UK.