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Smoking law changes today
1 October, 2007
Legal age to buy cigarettes is raised
Licensees have been reminded that from today it is illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone under the age of 18. This includes cigarettes, cigars, loose rolling tobacco and rolling paper and the law applies to both over-the-counter and vending machine sales
Selling tobacco to anyone under-age can result in a fine of up to £2,500 and failing to display a sign stating the age restrictions on tobacco can result in a fine of up to £1,000.
Acceptable forms of ID are passport, photo driving licence or a proof of age card bearing the Proof of Age Standards Scheme hologram. The Trading Standards Institute (TSI) are also suggesting that retailers adopt use pub-style ID measures.
Brandon Cook, joint lead on age restricted sales, said: “Retailers are advised to adopt the Challenge 21 initiative where any person who appears to be under the age of 21 is asked to produce appropriate ID.”
TSI are whole-heartedly supporting the new law. Chaiman Bryan Lewin, said: “We believe that raising the age limit to 18 is a positive move in making it more difficult for young people to regularly get their hands on cigarettes. We’re looking forward to the implementation and the anticipated improvements in young people’s long-term health that it will bring.
If licensees have not received information packs or would like help in understanding what the new law will mean for them, they should contact their local authority trading standards service.
Readers' comments
Your story is right but the headline is not. It is not an offence for under-18s to smoke, to buy tobacco or attempt to buy; nor as far as I can see is proxy purchasing an offence. It is the sale of cigarettes etc to under-18s that is the offence and this potentially includes sales through vending machines. This will obviously hit the tobacconists, newsagesnts and corner stores very hard in terms of sales, which is one thing, but crucially in terms of enforcement where there are going to be lots of unhappy 17 year old smokers today. Trading Standards say they will adopt a 'light touch' to enforcement. We shall wait to see but all licensees should be alert to this new responsibility - and brief their staff accordingly.