13 February 2008
ASH Scotland today [Wednesday 13 February] submitted its response to Christine Grahame MSP’s consultation on licensing tobacco sales1 which closes on Friday. Sheila Duffy, ASH Scotland’s Chief Executive said she hoped that the results of the consultation would show there was a clear need for licensing to be used as a means of enforcing the law on underage sales of tobacco. Commenting Ms Duffy said:
“There is a clear need to tackle the rogue traders who are selling cigarettes to our children. Both national research and recent test purchasing exercises have shown that children and young people find it easy to buy cigarettes in shops and we know that the younger someone starts to smoke, the more likely they are to continue their addiction into adulthood, the more cigarettes they are likely to smoke, and the harder they find it to quit. More worryingly, they are much more likely to do damage to their health. A child who starts smoking at age fourteen or younger is five times more likely to die of lung cancer than someone who starts smoking at age 24 or older, and no less than fifteen times more likely to die of lung cancer than someone who never smokes.
“82% of 15-year old smokers and 47% of 13-year old smokers report buying their cigarettes from shops. Test purchasing exercises show that the recent change in minimum purchase age from 16 to 18 hasn’t solved the problem of underage sales with recent figures showing that across eight local authority areas, 30% of retailers made illegal sales of cigarettes to under 18s4. Only 4% of these illegal sales resulted in reports being sent to the procurator fiscal, with the others receiving written warnings only. These figures show that there is no effective deterrent stopping retail outlets selling cigarettes to those underage.
“All laws are only of use if they are properly enforced and it is clear that the minimum purchase age for tobacco is not being universally or effectively enforced. We need a twin approach to tackling this problem using enforcement and awareness. A positive licensing scheme coupled with Fixed Penalty Notices should be introduced in Scotland. This would mean retailers who sell tobacco must register with their local authority and obtain a licence to sell tobacco. If they are then found to be making underage sales, they can be fined and if they are repeat offenders then their licence to sell tobacco can be removed.
“Such a system would prove to be both an effective deterrent and proportionate penalty for selling such a harmful age restricted product to our future generations. It would also remove the need to use the expensive and time consuming court process which is currently the only way of fining a retailer who has broken the law. Positive licensing would also mean local authorities would know where tobacco was being sold and could carry out awareness raising work about the consequences of breaking the law.
“There must also be resources made available to local authorities to carry out test purchasing exercises on a regular basis especially in areas where their intelligence suggest illegal sales are being made.
“24% of deaths in Scotland are due to smoking and £200 million is spent each year by the NHS in Scotland on treating tobacco related diseases. By preventing our children from starting to smoke, we can reduce the impact of tobacco on our nation’s health. This means we need to uphold the laws on selling this harmful product and introduce more effective enforcement through a positive licensing system.
“ASH Scotland is keen to see the analysis of the responses to Christine Grahame’s consultation. We hope that the Scottish Government will be convinced of the need for a licensing scheme for tobacco retail, and will include this measure in their smoking prevention action plan which is due to be published this Spring”.
Sheila Duffy is available for interview.
ENDS
For further information please contact Jeanette Campbell 0131 220 9466
Notes for editors
ASH Scotland is the leading voluntary organisation campaigning for effective tobacco control.
The ASH Scotland response to the Licensing Tobacco Sales Consultation is available from ASH Scotland.