UK could see legal smoking age increased to 21
The UK could see the legal smoking age increase from 18 to 21 under new plans put forward by MPs.
These new measures to improve pubic health will also see higher levies placed on tobacco companies.
The taxes will then be used to fund campaigns to prevent youths from taking up smoking and encouraging others to quit.
The influential cross-party group of MPs who make up the parliamentary group on smoking and health also want to restrict the amount of smoking showed in TV shows and films.
Tory MP Bob Blackman, who chairs the group, told The Guardian: “Smoking remains the leading cause of premature death and health inequalities.
“Ratcheting up tobacco regulation further and faster is essential to achieve the government’s vision for prevention, to increase healthy life expectancy while reducing inequalities between the richest and poorest in society.”
According to the Tobacco Manufacturers Association, the price of a box of cigarettes in the UK is already around 80% tax.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock says smoking rates need to be tackled if the government wants to make good on their plans to increase life expectancy by five by 2035.
The smoking rate in the UK has fallen to second-lowest in Europe in recent years and Hancock wants it fall even further in the next three years.
The government wants to reduce the number of 15-year-olds who regularly smoke from 8% to 3% or less and cut it from 15.5% to 12% for adults.
Deborah Arnott, chief executive of-of the campaign group Action on Smoking and Health, said that “legislation to strictly regulate smoking used to be considered controversial and extreme by all mainstream political parties”.
The MPs’ submission to the government’s green paper is back by 17 organisations.
It also wants the collection of data from tobacco sales to monitor trends in the industry, as well as inserts inside packets encouraging smokers to quit.
If the legal smoking age does increase, the UK will be part of a small group which include Honduras, Kuwait and New York City.
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