TMA response to Scotland’s Smoking Prevention Action Plan

The Public Health Minister for Scotland, Shona Robison MSP has announced today the Smoking Prevention Action Plan (SPAP). The SPAP proposes further restrictions on the sale of tobacco which it claims will reduce youth smoking. In response, Chris Ogden, Director of the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association, said:

“We welcome the recommendations on more effective enforcement of tobacco sales and the increased emphasis on youth smoking prevention. However, we believe that there is insufficient evidence to suggest that banning displays of tobacco products at the point of sale will deter young people from taking up smoking.

“We believe that our industry should be appropriately regulated. However, any regulation must be fair, proportionate and must strike a balance between pursuing public health policy objectives and at the same time allowing adults the freedom of choice to smoke and the right of retailers to display what is a legal product.

“We agree that children should not smoke and should be discouraged from doing so. We remain committed to proof-of-age programmes as the most effective way to stop children accessing cigarettes. We actively support retailers in enforcing the new minimum legal age of 18 for the sale of tobacco by means of age verification materials like CitizenCard and No ID No Sale. Penalties for retailers who sell to young people and stronger enforcement by Trading Standards officers are more effective ways to prevent underage sales than banning display at point of sale.

“If the Scottish Parliament wishes to explore these proposals we ask that they consult and engage with the tobacco industry and the retailers – who are aware, more than anyone, of the unintended consequences many of these actions may cause.”

The TMA positions on the other SPAP proposals are given below in the Notes to Editors.

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For further information please contact:

Zöe Walker, Manager Corporate Affairs
t: 020 7544 0115
m: 07790 060041
e: zwalker@the-tma.org.uk

Notes to Editors:

The TMA is the trade association for tobacco companies that operate in the UK. Our members are British American Tobacco UK Ltd (bat.com), Gallaher Ltd (gallaher-group.com), and Imperial Tobacco Ltd. (imperial-tobacco.com).

TMA Positions on each of the SPAP proposals:

• Governments that are proposing to regulate the display of tobacco products in the retail environment should ensure that they introduce measures which do not disproportionately impact on retailers, smokers and tobacco companies or have adverse unintended consequences such as increasing illicit trade.
• We do not support bans on the display of tobacco products, and will be engaging with the Scottish Parliament on their proposed regulation to restrict the display of tobacco products.
• Display of product is essential to enable adult consumers to make an informed choice based on availability, price and brand from the wide range of tobacco products.
• Display is necessary for fair and undistorted competition between manufacturers and between retailers.
• Display is also essential to the efficiency of the retailing process which is increasingly dependent on speeding up transaction times and reducing the need for extended verbal communication.
• Product display at point of sale rather than elsewhere on the premises is also necessary for security and retail efficiency reasons as tobacco is high value and the most requested FMCG product with approximately 11million smokers in the UK regularly buying tobacco products.^[i]
• Concealing tobacco products from view makes it easier for traders of smuggled product to blend it into the legal supply chain and could pose further challenges to the enforcement effort against such traders.

• We do not support proposals prohibiting the sale of packs less than 20 cigarettes as it removes an important element of adult consumer choice.
• These packs are primarily purchased by adult smokers who wish to control their daily consumption.
• Within the UK, 20.1% (which equates to 2.5million people) of the cigarette market comprises 10-pack sales. ^[ii]
• A ban on small packs is likely to encourage low-income smokers to seek cheaper, smuggled 20 packs (both genuine and counterfeit) from illegal sellers who do not demand proof of age. Our estimates show 27% of cigarettes and around 70% of handrolling tobacco consumed throughout the UK in 2007 were non-UK duty paid. Around 10% of this was counterfeit. Given the prevalence and availability of smuggled and counterfeit product in the UK ^[iii] we feel that it would be particularly unwise to prohibit 10-packs.
• In Ireland, a ban on 10-packs in 2007 was aimed at reducing tobacco consumption but research has shown that the average number of cigarettes smoked per day has risen from 16 before the ban to 17 since the ban. ^[iv]

• A negative licensing system, as favoured by Westminster, entails no extra cost or administrative burden for retailers and provides a swift and effective means of tackling both first time and persistently offending retailers without creating higher costs for all parties concerned.
• The TMA is a principal stakeholder in CitizenCard (citizencard.com), the UK’s leading proof-of-age scheme and the No ID No Sale (NINS: noidnosale.com) campaign operated by CitizenCard which promotes all PASS accredited (Government approved) Proof of Age / ID schemes. 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. The NINS campaign is active in more than 100,000 retailers nationwide and has created a culture in which young people expect to be asked to prove their age, and in which retailers accept only the correct forms of ID. This is essential as there is no statutory proof of age scheme in Scotland. The vast majority of retailers in Scotland are committed to upholding the law on age-related sales. The TMA is fully committed to youth access prevention.
• A retail licensing system does little to combat the counterfeiting or smuggling of tobacco products, as such products are primarily sold through illegal channels. We are concerned that this recommendation will not prevent under-age sales by illegal vendors as those who trade in smuggled and counterfeit cigarettes have no compunction about selling to minors.

• We do not support the prohibition of vending machines, which would not only prevent legitimate access by adult smokers, but also force the closure of many small businesses with consequent job losses.
• Access to cigarette vending machines should be controlled in order to prevent sales to children and the National Association of Cigarette Machine Operators (NACMO) Code of Practice on the positioning of machines should be strictly adhered to.
• The TMA believes that vending operators and manufacturers need to identify and utilize systems that enable the purchase of tobacco products by adults only.

^[i] General Household Survey plus Continuous Household Survey (Northern Ireland) 2006

^[ii] RAL data in “Category Review 2007″

^[iii] HMRC estimate in 2005/06 NUKDP consumption lost them revenue of between £2.8 billion and £4.3 billion.

^[iv] Lansdowne Market Research: an annual sample of 14, 000 which was demographically representative of the Republic of Ireland population aged 18+.