Age of sale in Scotland

Responding to Public Health Minister Shona Robison’s announcement today that the minimum age for buying cigarettes in Scotland will be raised from 16 to 18, Chris Ogden, Director of the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association, said:

“We believe that children should not smoke. Smoking is a matter of informed adult choice and it is for government to determine the legal age at which tobacco may be sold. We therefore support the decision that the Scottish Executive has made.

“However we strongly urge the Executive to ensure that a public awareness campaign is put in place and that sufficient enforcement resources are made available. This is essential, not only to ensure that the law is understood and complied with by legal traders but also to prevent sales to under-age children by illegal vendors. Those who trade in smuggled and counterfeit cigarettes have no compunction about selling to minors.”

Ends
For further information please contact:
Zöe Walker, Manager Corporate Affairs
t: 020 7544 0115
m: 07793 650296
f: 020 7544 0117
e: zwalker@the-tma.org.uk

Notes to Editors:
This press release is issued on behalf of the TMA’s principal member companies: Imperial Tobacco Ltd, Gallaher Ltd and British American Tobacco.
The TMA is fully committed to youth access prevention. As an industry we make significant investments in programmes to support effective retailer engagement. The key issue, whatever age people can buy cigarettes, is that retailers must be able to establish the age of any potential customer before a sale is made. To this end the TMA is a principal stakeholder in the CitizenCard proof of age scheme and the No ID No Sale (NINS) retailer education and communication programme. The distinctive NINS poster is visible in retail outlets throughout the UK and hundreds of thousands of store staff are trained using NINS material.
The TMA estimates that 27% of cigarettes and around 70% of hand rolling tobacco consumed throughout the UK in 2006 was non-UK duty paid. Around 10% of this was counterfeit.