YOUNG Scots could never legally be able to buy cigarettes under proposed new anti-smoking laws.
The UK-wide Tobacco and Vapes Bill, introduced in Parliament today, aims to ban the sale of tobacco products to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009 and allow tougher measures on vaping.
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The bill will gradually increase the age of sale, making it an offence to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after this date.
This means that children turning 15 this year and younger will never be able to buy cigarettes.
It also includes new powers to regulate displays, contents, flavours and retail packaging of vapes and nicotine products.
And allowing restrictions to target flavours marketed at children and to move vapes out of sight of children and away from products like sweets.
It will also remove existing Scottish provisions which make it an offence for a person under 18 to purchase tobacco products.
All governments in the UK agreed to bring forward the legislation as part of their response to the four nations ‘Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping’ consultation.
Public Health Minister Jenni Minto welcomed the introduction of the proposed law.
She added: “Scotland has been a world-leader on a range of tobacco control measures, and while there has been a steady reduction in the proportion of people smoking we know it still damages lives and kills more than 8,000 people a year in Scotland.
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“Smoking is a huge burden on our NHS and social care services and contributes significantly to health inequalities, which is why our goal is for a tobacco-free Scotland by 2034.
“Research suggests that almost one in five young people have tried vaping and we’re particularly concerned about how flavours are used as an enticement to children and young people.
“We will now consider how to use these powers, if passed by Westminster, with the consent of the Scottish Parliament, to benefit public health.
“We will continue our four-nations approach to avoid any unnecessary regulatory divergence and to offer more certainty and for business and consistency for consumers.
“Powers on vapes will be taken forward following further consultation and engagement.
“In addition, we were the first government to commit to taking action on single-use vapes and have now fulfilled our 2023 Programme for Government commitment to consult on measures to tackle the environmental impact of single-use vapes.”
The Scottish Government has already published proposals to ban the sale and supply of single-use vapes in Scotland using existing environmental powers.
If agreed by the Scottish Parliament, this would come into effect on April 1, 2025.
