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Smoking in the United Kingdom

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Tobacco smoking in the United Kingdom is prevalent among a sizeable, but continuously reducing minority of the population. Smoking is legally permitted, with certain conditions upon location arising from the bans enacted separately in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It has been argued that smoking puts considerable strain upon the NHS due to the health problems which can be directly linked with smoking. Successive UK Governments have endeavoured to reduce the prevalence of smoking. As part of this commitment, the NHS currently offers free help to smokers who want to quit.

Prevalence

As recently as 1974, 45% of the British population smoked. This was down to 30% by the early-1990s, 21% by 2010, and 19.3% by 2013; the lowest level recorded for eighty years.[1] An annual No Smoking Day has occurred in March since 1984.[2]

In 2015, it was reported smoking rates in England had fallen to just 16.9%; a record low.[3]

Health issues

It has been estimated by Cancer Research UK that smoking is the single greatest cause of preventable illness and early death, with around 107,000 people dying in 2007 from smoking-related diseases including cancers in the UK. Around 86% of lung cancer deaths in the UK are caused by tobacco smoking and overall tobacco smoking is estimated to be responsible for more than a quarter of cancer deaths in the UK, around 43,000 deaths in 2007.[4]

The British Medical Journal states that due to the drive to help smokers quit smoking, Britain has the world's largest reduction in the number of deaths from lung cancer. Previously in 1950, the UK had one of the highest rates in the world. The annual number of deaths from lung cancer in 2000 was half of what it was in 1965.[5]

Reducing the prevalence of smoking to 5% could avoid nearly 100,000 new cases of smoking-related disease including 35,900 cancers over twenty years and save £67,000,000 a year in health and social care costs according to research commissioned by Cancer Research UK.[6]

Age restrictions

England and Wales

Until 1 October 2007, the minimum age to purchase and consume tobacco products in public was 16 years of age. From 1 October 2007 the Children and Young Persons (Sale of Tobacco etc.) Order 2007 became effective, raising the minimum purchase age to 18 years of age. There is no stated age under which it is illegal to consume tobacco, although an officer has the right to confiscate tobacco if the individual concerned is in a public place and under sixteen years of age.

Children and Young Persons Act 1933 – Section 7
(1) Any person who sells to a person under the age of eighteen years any tobacco or cigarette papers, whether for his own use or not, shall be liable, on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 4 on the standard scale.
(3) It shall be the duty of a constable and of a park-keeper being in uniform to seize any tobacco or cigarette papers in the possession of any person apparently under the age of sixteen years whom he finds smoking in any street or public place, and any tobacco or cigarette papers so seized shall be disposed of, if seized by a constable, in such manner as the police authority may direct, and if seized by a park-keeper, in such manner as the authority or person by whom he was appointed may direct.

— Children and Young Persons Act 1933, Section 7 – Sale of tobacco, &c. to persons under eighteen

Scotland

Until 30 September 2007, the minimum age to purchase and consume tobacco products in public was 16 years of age. From 30 September 2007 the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010 became effective, raising the minimum purchase, consumption and possession age to 18 years of age.

Section 4: Sale of tobacco products to persons under 18
(1) A person who sells a tobacco product or cigarette papers to a person under the age of 18 commits an offence.

Section 5: Purchase of tobacco products by persons under 18
(1) A person under the age of 18 who buys or attempts to buy a tobacco product or cigarette papers commits an offence.
Section 6: Purchase of tobacco products on behalf of persons under 18

(1) A person aged 18 or over who knowingly buys or attempts to buy a tobacco product or cigarette papers on behalf of a person under the age of 18 commits an offence.

— Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010, Chapter 1 – Sale and purchase of tobacco products

Section 7: Confiscation of tobacco products from persons under 18

(1) Where a constable has reasonable grounds for suspecting that a person in a public place—

(a) is under the age of 18, and
(b) is in possession of a tobacco product or cigarette papers,

the constable may require the person to surrender the tobacco product or, as the case may be, the cigarette papers to the constable.
(7) The constable may dispose of any tobacco product or cigarette papers surrendered to the constable in such manner as the constable considers appropriate. (8) In this section "public place" includes—

(a) any place to which the public have access for the time being (whether on payment of a fee or otherwise), and
(b) any place to which the public do not have access but to which the person mentioned in subsection (1) has unlawfully gained access.
— Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010, Chapter 1 – Miscellaneous

Northern Ireland

Until 31 August 2008, the minimum age to purchase and consume tobacco products in public was 16 years of age. From 1 September 2008 the Children and Young Persons (Sale of Tobacco etc.) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008 became effective, raising the minimum purchase, consumption and possession age to 18 years of age.

Section 3: Prohibition on sale of tobacco, etc. to persons apparently under 18
(1) Subject to paragraph (2), a person who sells to a person under the age of 18 any tobacco or cigarette papers, whether for his own use or not, shall be guilty of an offence.

Section 5: Seizure of tobacco, etc. in possession of persons apparently under 18
(1) A member of the Police Service of Northern Ireland may seize any tobacco or cigarette papers in the possession of any person apparently under the age of 18 whom he finds smoking in any street or public place.

(2) Any tobacco or cigarette papers seized under paragraph (1) shall be disposed of in such a manner as the Police Authority for Northern Ireland may direct.

— Health and Personal Social Services (Northern Ireland) Order 1978, PART II – Sale of Tobacco, Etc. to Persons Apparently Under 18

Smoking ban

Main article: Smoking ban

Smoking in workplaces and enclosed public spaces has been illegal since 26 March 2006 in Scotland, 2 April 2007 in Wales, 30 April 2007 in Northern Ireland and 1 July 2007 in England, [7][8]

Further restrictions

On 6 April 2012, the display of tobacco products was banned in retailers larger than 280 square metres in England. With the ban coming into effect in small retailers three years later on 6 April 2015.[9]

In March 2011, the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition government committed itself to holding a public consultation on the introduction of plain tobacco packaging. Influenced by the introduction of plain packaging in Australia, the House of Commons voted 367–113 in March 2015 to pass the Children and Families Act 2014 which would give the government the power to require plain packaging for tobacco products.[10] This came into force on 20 May 2016, but tobacco companies were given one year to sell off remaining stock; in which afterwards, all tobacco products sold in the UK must follow plain packaging laws.[11] On October 1, 2015 a law was passed which banned smoking in vehicles with anyone under eighteen years of age present. The law does not apply to e-cigarettes, if the driver is seventeen years of age and alone in the vehicle or in a convertible with the roof completely down.[12]

Electronic cigarettes

Main article: Electronic cigarette

Despite the name, 'e-cigarette,' these devices contain no tobacco and produce no smoke, and therefore any reference to them, should be under e-cigarettes and not smoking. Exceptions to this might be their role as an alternative to smoking, or as devices where it increasingly looks like they are helping young people avoid smoking.[13]

On 2 April 2014 the Welsh Government published a public health white paper in which it proposed a ban on the use of e-cigarettes in public spaces.[14] The Bill was subsequently defeated.

The annual Smokefree GB survey, published in May 2017, concluded that 52% of the 2.9 million British e-cigarette users are now ex-smokers. 26% of respondents thought e-cigarettes were as harmful as real cigarettes[15]. In March 2017, it was reported by The Telegraph UK's e-cigarette boom is on a decline, with the number of people using e-cigarettes in Britain decreasing for the first time since their launch.[16]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Ministers aim to halve number of people smoking by 2020". BBC News. 1 February 2010. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  2. ^ Stoddard, Katy (14 March 2012). "When No Smoking Day was still big news". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  3. ^ "Smoking rates in England fall to lowest on record". 20 September 2016 – via www.bbc.co.uk.
  4. ^ "Smoking". Cancer Research UK. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  5. ^ Perry, Keith (3 August 2000). "Cancer warning halves deaths due to smoking". The Guardian. London. Retrieved 25 November 2011.
  6. ^ "Cutting smoking rates could save the NHS and social care £67m a year". Healthcare Leader. 17 May 2017. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  7. ^ "Scotland begins pub smoking ban". BBC News. 26 March 2006. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  8. ^ Roxby, Philippa (1 July 2012). "Smoking ban's impact five years on". BBC News. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  9. ^ "Full implementation of display ban". 6 April 2015. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  10. ^ "Plain packaging law". Legislation.gov.uk. The National Archives. Retrieved 11 April 2015.
  11. ^ "BBC article on plain packaging vote". BBC. 19 May 2016. Retrieved 20 May 2016.
  12. ^ url=https://www.gov.uk/government/news/smoking-in-vehicles
  13. ^ "Tobacco Use Among Middle and High School Students — United States, 2011–2014".
  14. ^ Listening to you: Your health matters (PDF) (Report). Welsh Government. 2 April 2014. p. 18. Retrieved 4 April 2014.
  15. ^ "More than half of e-cigarette users have quit smoking tobacco, survey reveals". Pharmaceutical Journal. 11 May 2017. Retrieved 3 June 2017.
  16. ^ Morley, Katie (2017-03-01). "Britain's e-cigarette boom is over, data suggests". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 2017-10-11.
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