What is the UK smoking ban, how will it work and when will it start?
- Published
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak effectively wants to ban smoking in the UK.
MPs have voted to back the government's plans to create a "smoke-free generation" and reduce the number of smoking-related deaths.
What is the smoking ban?
The restrictions will apply to the sale of cigarettes in the UK rather than the act of smoking itself.
Under the new law, each year the legal age for cigarette sales - currently 18 - will increase by one year.
It means that people born in or after 2009 will never be able to legally buy cigarettes.
The law will not affect those who are already allowed to buy cigarettes.
To crack down on under-age tobacco and vape sales, the government says it will introduce £100 on-the-spot fines for shops in England and Wales which flout the law.
Local authorities will retain the proceeds to reinvest into enforcement of the law.
This will be on top of £2,500 fines that courts can already impose.
The government says it will spend £30m on enforcement, which will include tackling the availability of cigarettes on the black market.
The new rules will apply in all duty free shops in the UK but anyone buying cigarettes abroad would be able to bring them back to the UK as long as they were legally acquired elsewhere.
The government aims to have the new system in force by 2027.
Mr Sunak wants to work with the governments of Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland to introduce the legislation across the UK.
How bad is smoking and how many deaths does it lead to?
Cigarettes release thousands of different chemicals when they burn, including carbon monoxide, lead and ammonia.
Many components of tobacco are poisonous and up to 70 cause cancer.
Smoking is also linked to other serious illnesses, including lung disease, heart disease and strokes. It can affect fertility and pregnancy.
The government says smoking is still the number one preventable cause of death, disability and ill health, causing about 80,000 deaths per year across the UK and costing the NHS and the economy an estimated £17bn every year.
According to the government, creating a "smoke-free generation" could prevent more than 470,000 cases of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer and other diseases by the end of the century.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill also aims to tackle vaping among young people who have never smoked before.
Vaping is less harmful than smoking cigarettes but is not risk-free. Health experts agree that anyone who does not already smoke should not start vaping.
Children's doctors warn vaping may cause long-term damage to young people's lungs, hearts and brains.
Vaping is too recent an activity for any long-term effects to have become clear but the NHS says it is "unlikely to be totally harmless".
The government has already announced plans to ban disposable vapes in England as soon as April 2025 and it hopes to extend this ban across the UK as well.
The contents, flavours and packaging of nicotine vapes will also be restricted in order to make them less attractive to children. A new tax on vaping will be introduced from October 2026.
Vaping alternatives - such as nicotine pouches - will also be outlawed for children.
What is happening to smoking rates in the UK?
According to the Office for National Statistics (ONS), some 12.9% of people aged 18 years and over in the UK - or about 6.4 million people - smoked cigarettes in 2022.
This is the lowest proportion of current smokers since records began in 2011.
The 25-34 age group has the highest proportion of smokers, while the lowest was among those aged 65 and over.
Smoking rates in older teens also remain high - more than 12% of 16 to 17-year-olds smoke in England.
Although the number of 11 to 17-year-olds who smoke cigarettes has gone down in the past decade, the popularity of vaping has increased in this age group, with disposable vapes being the most popular type.
The price of smoking has gone up substantially in recent years, with a packet of 20 king-size cigarettes now costing more than £15, with £6.33 of that being tax.
The increase is motivating more people to give up smoking, research suggests.
A survey of nearly 6,000 people in England found that half of those who had tried to stop had done so for health reasons, while a quarter said it was due to the cost.
Are other countries banning smoking?
The UK's approach is thought to have been inspired by a policy in New Zealand.
The country's previous government planned to ban anyone born after 2008 from buying cigarettes or tobacco products in their lifetime.
But, in November 2023, the current government said it will scrap the law to help fund tax cuts.
Mexico has some of the strictest anti-smoking laws in the world, including smoking bans at beaches, parks and, in some cases, private homes.
Portugal aims to have a "smoke-free generation" by 2040 and wants to pass a law that would stop bars, cafes and petrol stations from selling tobacco products.
Canada is hoping to reduce tobacco use to less than 5% by 2035 and, earlier this year, it became the first country to rule that health warnings should be printed on individual cigarettes.