The transport of tobacco products needs to be controlled at a global level through an international treaty such as the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Tobacco companies should be made to supply information on and take responsibility for policing the distribution chain. Producer liability should be extended throughout the supply chain down to sales to individual retailers.
The onus should be placed on tobacco manufacturers to show that cigarettes arrive legally in their end user markets.
There should be more international co-operation between Customs agencies.
Further investment should be made to assist enforcement officers in their anti-smuggling strategy.
There should be a long-term commitment to high staffing levels for Customs & Excise in Scotland to enable them to control smuggling at street level.
Customs Officers and Trading Standards Officers should continue to formalise effective ways of working together to share information and assist each other in the prevention, detection and prosecution of tobacco smuggling offences.
Market operators who allow illegal activity to take place within their markets should have their licences for operating markets removed.
A registered objection from Customs & Excise register should be sufficient evidence for a licensing board to remove a licence from market operators.
Higher sentences and fines should be utilised against those convicted of tobacco smuggling.
The Crown Office should issue sentencing guidelines for those convicted of tobacco smuggling offences.
Asset confiscation legislation should be revised to cover all serious crime, including tobacco smuggling.
There should be long term and ongoing investment in smokingcessation services. Money raised from tobacco taxation should be ring-fenced for smoking cessation interventions.
The provision of NRT products and Zyban on prescription is a welcome development. These products should be effectively integrated into existing smoking cessation services. Guidelines and training on the use of these products should be given to those delivering cessation services in local communities.
More resources should be invested into the delivery of smoking cessation services within Healthy Living Centres, which are accessible to 20 per cent of the population across the UK.
A public information campaign should build on the campaign work undertaken by Customs & Excise in Scotland educating the general public about the links between tobacco smuggling, organised crime and drug dealing and the drain on the education and health budgets caused by lost tobacco revenue in Scotland
More research is needed to identify the access and availability of cheaper smuggled tobacco amongst underage smokers.