In January, I considered how local authorities would enforce the ban on the sale of tobacco to anyone born after January 1st 2009. With some difficulty – without a new army of Trading Standards officers being recruited. Under Section 7 of the Health Act 2006, smoking in a “smoke-free area” – such as inside a pub – is already a criminal offence. So, I suppose, this will apply to smoking (or vaping?) in a pub garden in future. But if you spot someone lighting up and so dial 999 don’t expect the rozzers to swoop into action. The people to snitch to would be the Trading Standards officers in the local town hall.
Even before these further laws are imposed with their increasing workload for Trading Standards officers, the illicit market in cigarettes is booming. I have seen Freedom of Information data obtained from local authorities which shows that 20 per cent reported a record number of seizures in 2023, as enforcement officers grapple with an exploding illicit market across England. One in nine of the local authorities who responded to the FOI request reported only having one Trading Standards officer. Thus, such seizures are bound to be a tiny fraction of what is sold. Still, the figures give some idea of the burgeoning illegal trade:
Illicit tobacco seizures are only one part of an officer’s role. Beyond ensuring traders adhere to the law with respect to counterfeit goods, they must also do the same for product labelling, underage sales, consumer safety, and animal welfare, amongst other things.
Polling by Charlesbye Strategy also lays bare the threat posed to embattled enforcement officers by an illicit market that is set to explode due to Labour’s proposed tobacco restrictions. Over half of smokers (53 per cent) say that any ban on tobacco will drive them to the black market. More than half of people in the UK (52 per cent) said they are concerned the implementation of a Generational Smoking Ban will lead to a rise in black market illicit cigarettes in the UK. Over half of the public don’t think it’s appropriate for the police to spend time and resources on enforcing a ban.
Experts from Australia, which has even more stringent tobacco and vaping regulations than the UK, have warned a brutal crime wave could be on its way to British shores because of Labour’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill. Rohan Pike, a former Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Border Force (ABF) officer, helped establish the original tobacco strike team. He cites a number of violent consequences of their ban, which could impact not just shopkeepers but publicans, too:
“Fire-bombings, assassinations and armed hold ups at tobacconists that started about 13 months ago, these are a result of the criminal market that has been created by our incorrect tobacco policy settings over the past 20 years.
“Australia’s tobacco policy is set by Department of Health officials who have no understanding of the criminal consequences of their policies. There is a massive disconnect between their public health ideals and the realities of law enforcement. It has been coming for some decades but now reached epidemic proportions in the last five to ten years and is getting worse. Australia has never had an illicit tobacco national plan and this lack of organisation has meant that there has never been any enforcement at the retail level.”
Pike outlines what the UK government should be thinking about, based on the mistakes made in Australia:
“If your proposed regulations are to succeed, you need to have a massive investment in your authorities who enforce them. You also need to have “buy-in” from local and national law enforcement agencies to deal with the associated organised crime elements. All of this takes careful planning, investment and willpower.
“We all know about the “Prohibition” policy relating to alcohol in the USA in the 1920s and how that spawned organised crime and was eventually repealed. The same type of puritanical zealotry is behind the current public health advocate’s push for the banning of tobacco products.”
To add to the muddle over the proposed new restrictions we have the matter of pubs and cafes with seating on the pavement outside. One of the few aspects of liberalisation during the pandemic was to make this easier. At the time Labour backed a ban on smoking in these seats but in a compromise it was left to local authorities if they wished to impose such restrictions. Only a handful – including Manchester and Newcastle – chose to do so. The vast majority came to the sensible conclusion that they had plenty of rules to enforce as it was. Now that obligation will be imposed on local authorities – without any indication of extra funding to pay for the staff required to enforce it.
No doubt the honest publicans will do their best to enforce the law – no matter how unreasonable and damaging they might regard it. Others might turn a blind eye – so business will be lost as the smokers gravitate to pub gardens where the ban is ignored. Perhaps that will be followed by malicious complaints – with disgruntled staff and competitors sending in snaps from their iphones. So much for the Prime Minister’s pledge to “tread more lightly” on our lives.
Smoking is unpopular. So anti smoking measures will get kneejerk approval – until the implications are pondered. The polling cited above gives a sense of that. Smokers are now a fairly small minority. So are libertarians. Fewer people go to pubs – but most of us would be sorry to see even more of them close down. But how many really want a law passed that would be unenforceable and boost criminal gangs?However pious Ministers sound at present, they will be judged on the results.