Generational Smoking Ban spells chaos for small businesses and retailers

A generational smoking ban, as proposed in Labour’s updated Tobacco and Vapes Bill, would spell chaos for small businesses and retailers, according to JTI.

A generational smoking ban aims to gradually end the sale of tobacco products across the UK by increasing the legal age of sale by one year. This means individuals born on or after 1 January 2009 will never be able to legally be sold tobacco products.

The burden of enforcing a generational ban will fall squarely on retailers, and disproportionately on smaller, independent retailers. Recent British Retail Consortium data revealed 1,300 instances of shop workers being verbally or physically assaulted every day in 2024, with a significant proportion of these attacks following a request for age verification.

The proposed generational ban and subsequent increase in ID checks will put retail workers at even greater risk, particularly in small and independent businesses that have no security staff or additional protections. The physical and mental impact on victims is estimated to cost UK retailers £3.3 billion annually – further highlighting the inconsistent approach from a Government that has just announced, as part of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s budget, to "stop shoplifting in its tracks", removing legislation which means thefts worth less than £200 are subject to less serious punishments and promising more funding to crack down on organised crime gangs.

JTI is urging the Government to focus on evidence-based, effective solutions, and implement a minimum age of sale of 21 instead.

Government modelling shows that raising the minimum age of sale to 21 could achieve an equivalent fall in youth smoking as a generational ban, when “The majority of smokers start before the age of 20” according to the Government press release today.

Not only would increasing the age of sale to 21 help deliver the same health outcomes, it is simpler and less burdensome for retailers, and removes serious challenges pertaining to the legality of a generational smoking ban in Northern Ireland.

The Republic of Ireland announced in May that it would raise the minimum age for sale of tobacco from 18 to 21, stating “[p]reliminary legal advice suggests Ireland cannot pursue a ‘smokefree generation’ policy as has been suggested in other jurisdictions due to the EU’s Single Market rules and Tobacco Products Directive”. Under the Windsor Framework, Northern Ireland follows these same EU provisions which would prevent the introduction of a generational smoking ban in this part of the UK.

An age of sale of 21 would therefore not only be consistent with the UK’s international obligations, but also ensure a consistent approach across the Isles between Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Great Britain.

The legislation to increase the age of sale to 21 in the Republic of Ireland is expected to pass this week