Contribution
My Lords, this amendment is essentially about the product scope of the consultation. I will say at the outset that I am not a smoker, and I have no fiduciary or pecuniary interest in the sector, but I am sure the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, will be delighted to know that I am speaking on the basis of empirical evidence which informs my remarks. The focus is specifically on heated tobacco products. I hope noble Lords will not groan about that because, given that the noble Lord, Lord Vaizey, was not here to move his amendment, we have not really had a debate about the efficacy of the ban as it affects heated tobacco products.
The broad thrust of this amendment is about consultation. It would require the Secretary of State to undertake the most basic task of any Government, which is to consult those impacted—retailers, manufacturers and consumers—on the practicality, enforceability and efficacy of the products in scope of the generational sales ban on tobacco products. I will take those points in turn, with the caveat that I will be focusing on heated tobacco products.
Heated tobacco is not smoking. In fact, it is an effective aid, as my noble friend Lord Howe said, in stopping smoking. The generational ban is a misguided step, but if the Government insist on proceeding with it, they should follow the evidence and remove heated tobacco from the scope. I shall speak to that more later. I want to talk about the practicality of the generational ban. Leaving aside the philosophical debate, there are practical public health considerations that may have been reflected in the Bill if a proper consultation had taken place. The first is that, for those who already smoke, heated tobacco products are an effective smoking cessation tool. They have helped Members of this House and the other place to quit smoking. It is illogical to include them in the ban and the Government should commit today to consulting with consumers of heated tobacco products so that they may understand their utility more clearly.
The second public health point is that simply the number of people, especially young people, starting to smoke is now very low. It was 1% of 11 to 15 year-olds in 2021 according to Action on Smoking and Health. An even lower number, just 0.3% according to the same survey, are using heated tobacco products. All of this suggests there is no need for heated tobacco products to be included in the scope of banned products. There will always be outliers and the Government’s own impact assessment
“assumes some people continue to smoke despite it being illegal for effectively all ages to be sold tobacco by 2100”.
For these adults, it makes sense for all cessation products to be available so that the road that has worked for decades can be taken—smoking reduction policies that inform, nudge and dissuade rather than remove the rights of adults to make their own choices.
I want to talk about enforceability and the illicit trade and retailers, and all within the context of proper consultation or otherwise. We do not have to look into a crystal ball to imagine the consequences of this legislation, particularly the generational ban. The policy has already backfired in Australia where there is now a booming illicit trade fuelled by criminal gangs. We would be naive to assume the same situation could not happen here in the United Kingdom. A consultation with retailers would reveal the issues they already face with rising crime and illicit trade. This would undoubtedly worsen with confusing arbitrary rules for different legal products.
We should make these measures as simple as possible for retailers by categorising all smoking cessation products in the same way. That would be a useful start. We know that young people will still be able to get their hands on illegal cigarettes, just as we know that they are able to procure all manner of products that they should not be able to. Teenagers have always been resourceful; that is why it is important that we continue to make all possible smoking cessation tools available to all adults because, whatever the law says, there will be adult smokers born after 1 January 2009.