To help inform future decision-making on tobacco policy and legislation, Northern Ireland’s Department of Health has agreed that it will be included in the public consultation launched on October 12, 2023, by the prime minister.
The Department of Health has a long-standing strategic aim for a tobacco-free Northern Ireland.
Important strides forward have been made, including a reduction in smoking prevalence, with adult smoking rates here falling from 24 per cent to 17 per cent over the last 11 years. However, a recent review of its tobacco control strategy highlighted several remaining challenges, not least the continued preventable premature death and ill-health caused by smoking. Approximately 2,200 people die each year in Northern Ireland from smoking-related conditions.
This eight-week UK-wide consultation will cover proposals to make it illegal for anyone born on or after January 1, 2009, ever to be sold tobacco products at any point in their lives. The consultation will also include a series of proposals to clamp down on the sale and use of vapes by children and young people, including restrictions on flavours, display, packaging and disposable vapes.
Comments in response to the public consultation are welcome from anyone, of any age, in Northern Ireland.
The outcome of this consultation will help inform decisions of incoming NI ministers and the executive, or in the absence of ministers, those decisions that can be taken under the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2022.