Key Facts

• The age of sale for tobacco products will be raised to prohibit sales to individuals born on or after January 1, 2009.
• Smoking is responsible for about 80,000 deaths annually in the UK.
• Each year, smoking costs the economy a minimum of £17 billion.
• The government plans to invest an extra £30 million per year over five years into enforcement agencies.
• Funding for local stop-smoking services will be nearly doubled with an additional £70 million each year for the next five years.
• The Bill aims to prevent almost half a million cases of heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, and other deadly diseases by the turn of the century in England alone.
• One in three vapes on the market is illicit.
• Youth vaping has trebled in two years.
• Tobacco kills an estimated 8 million people a year.
• The number of people who smoke has been cut by almost a third since 2007.
• The percentage of 15-year-olds who smoke regularly dropped from 20% to 3%.
• There were 1,200 fewer hospital admissions for heart attacks in the year after the smoking ban was implemented according to The BMJ.
• After the smoking ban, there were 1,200 fewer hospital admissions for heart attacks.
• Clause 1 changes the tobacco sale age from 18 to those born on or after January 1, 2009, raising it by one year annually.
• Two thirds of long-term smokers started before age 18.
• University College London calculates that around 350 young adults start smoking regularly each day.
• The age verification policy in Scotland will stay as Challenge 25 until the end of 2033.
• The Khan review recommended raising the age of sale for tobacco products by one year every year.
• The Bill aims to create a smoke-free generation and address inequality in tobacco use among poor communities.
• The MP worked in respiratory medicine for 20 years and observed the impact of smoking on patients.
• Smoking accounted for an estimated 8,942 deaths in Scotland in 2022.
• The Bill includes measures pushed for by the Scottish Government, particularly part 2 which relates specifically to Scotland.
• Jenni Minto, Scottish Public Health Minister, has spoken positively about Scotland's tobacco control measures.
• Financial incentives are provided for those expecting a baby and their partners to quit smoking.
• The clause restates the ban on tobacco vending machines in England and Wales introduced in 2011 (England) and 2012 (Wales).
• In 2010, 8% of 11 to 15-year-olds who regularly smoked said that vending machines were a usual source of cigarettes.
• The Bill aims to tidy up the statute book for tobacco measures and make the law clearer.
• Clauses 4 and 38 restate that it is an offence to sell cigarettes not in their original packaging.
• The sale of unpackaged cigarettes was originally introduced to reduce smoking among children.
• Clause 4(2) imposes a fine at level 3 for selling unpackaged cigarettes.
• Clauses 5 and 6 introduce the requirement for updated age of sale notices.
• New wording states it's illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
• Scottish Ministers and Northern Ireland Department of Health have powers under clauses 42 and 50 to set requirements about warning statements.
• The Secretary of State and Welsh Ministers can introduce further requirements for the appearance, including colour, of age of sale notices.
• Clause 7 extends age restrictions on selling nicotine vapes to under-18s in England and Wales and also covers non-nicotine vapes.
• Non-nicotine vape sales restrictions will come into effect six months after Royal Assent.
• Clause 9 closes a loophole by making it an offence to give away vaping products or coupons redeemable for such products to under-18s in England and Wales.
• Government amendment 25 adjusts the penalty for free distribution of nicotine and non-nicotine vapes in Northern Ireland from imprisonment to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.
• Labour proposed measures more than two years ago to stop vapes being marketed to appeal to children.
• The number of British children aged 11 to 17 who are vaping regularly has more than trebled since 2021, reaching over 140,000.
• One in five children have now tried vaping according to the most recent survey by Action on Smoking and Health.
• The chief medical officer stated that vaping is better for smokers but harmful for non-smokers, particularly children.
• Clause 7 only makes it an offence to sell vaping products to individuals under 18, not all nicotine products.
• Sportspeople are influential on youth and should be cautious about promoting potentially harmful products.
• The notification of vapes to the MHRA will require compliance before they can be legally sold.
• Illicit vapes may contain up to 30% nicotine content.
• An excise duty on vapes is proposed to improve tracking and tracing, similar to cigarettes.
• The MHRA is not an enforcement body; enforcement is the responsibility of trading standards.
• New resources for trading standards are being provided.
• Fines collected from enforcement activities will go directly to local authorities.