Plans to introduce the most significant public health intervention in a generation and phase out smoking are progressing at pace, as the government’s consultation closed on December 6, 2023.
Amassing roughly 25,000 responses – including from healthcare professionals, public health experts, academics, teachers, parents and teenagers – officials will analyse results, and ministers will set out the next steps in the following weeks, including details on the forthcoming Tobacco and Vapes Bill recently announced in the king’s speech.
The majority of the public is behind the plans, and the government says it is determined to take vital action quickly to protect future generations from the harms of tobacco addiction.
The government’s response to the consultation will be published ahead of the bill’s introduction to Parliament in the new year.
Andrea Leadsom, the public health minister, said, “As a former teenage smoker, these historic plans might just have prevented me from ever lighting a cigarette.
“Smoking is the biggest preventable killer in the UK, and that’s why we need to push ahead at pace with our plans to protect today’s children and create the first ‘smokefree generation’ while cracking down on youth vaping.
“We are taking the long-term health decisions needed to safeguard the next generation from the harms of smoking and risk of addiction.”
The government’s plans include introducing a new law to stop children who turned 14 in 2023 or are younger from ever legally being sold tobacco in England. There is also a worrying rise in vaping among children, and the government will therefore also introduce measures to reduce the appeal and availability of vapes to children while ensuring they remain available as a quit tool for smokers.
This will prevent thousands of children from starting smoking in the coming years and potentially having their lives cut short as a result.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of health charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said, “With the overwhelming support of the public the UK has picked up the baton to become the first country in the world to create a ‘smokefree generation’.
“In the twentieth century the UK, home to the tobacco industry, had the highest smoking rates in the world, in the twenty first we are now on track to lead the way out of the tobacco epidemic.
“This will herald the start of a new era in tobacco control, where the end of the smoking is finally in sight.”
Smoking is the UK’s biggest preventable killer, causing around one in four cancer deaths and 64,000 deaths in England alone, costing the economy and wider society £17bn each year. No other consumer product kills up to two-thirds of its users. It is estimated the plans will save tens of thousands of lives and save the NHS billions of pounds.
Four in five smokers have started by the time they are 20. Although the vast majority try to quit, many due to the addictive nature of cigarettes.
Cathy Hunt, a 58-year-old mum of four from County Durham, was diagnosed with lung cancer and had half a lung removed in 2015. Two days before her 50th birthday. She underwent surgery again in 2022 when the cancer returned, and in June 2023 had a kidney removed due to cancer.
Cathy said, “I am absolutely over the moon about the government’s plan to raise the age of sale for tobacco one year every year until we see the end of smoking, and all my family and friends are too.
“Smoking isn’t a lifestyle choice but a lethal addiction which traps hundreds of new victims in its claws every day, victims who struggle to escape. I only managed to stop once I found out I had lung cancer but wish now I could turn the clock back to the time I started smoking as a child aged 11.
“That’s also why I’m so pleased the government is providing more funding for anti-smoking campaigns, stop smoking services and enforcement to help stop the start and start the stop for those already addicted to smoking like I was.”
Michelle Mitchell, Cancer Research UK’s chief executive, said, “Smoking is the biggest cause of cancer in the UK, responsible for around 150 cancers a day. Raising the age of sale for tobacco products is one of the biggest opportunities we have had to help prevent cancer in over a decade.
“This consultation is a vital step on the road to the first ever ‘smokefree generation’. If the government takes decisive action in all UK nations, the UK can phase smoking out for good and protect the next generation from a potential lifetime of addiction and disease.”