Post implementation review of tobacco legislation: consultation document
Published 22 July 2019
© Crown copyright 2019
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/the-impact-of-tobacco-laws-introduced-between-2010-and-2016/post-implementation-review-of-tobacco-legislation-consultation-document
1. Executive summary
Smoking remains the biggest cause of death and disability in England.
Over recent years a range of legislation has been introduced to discourage young people from taking up smoking, vaping and encourage existing smokers to quit and to protect others from the harmful effects of cigarette smoke. This has included a curb on advertising, establishing smoke-free places, introduction of prominent, graphic health warnings, a ban on proxy purchasing of cigarettes and e-cigarettes and a ban on smoking in cars with children as well as the introduction of standardised packaging.
The UK now has a suite of tobacco control legislation which is among the most comprehensive in the world and smoking rates are on the decline.
The government has committed to reviewing all tobacco legislation coming into force between 2010 and 2016. This review includes a public consultation.
This consultation provides an opportunity to provide feedback on the effectiveness of the legislation in achieving its objectives. Further details of the regulations included as part of this review can be found in section 2.
To gain a deeper understanding of the impact of the legislation, a separate focus group with stakeholders will be conducted to complement the result of this consultation. In-depth views and experiences from trade associations and their representatives will be collected and analysed as part of that exercise.
2. Aim of the post implementation review
The Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 (SBEEA) imposes a duty on ministers to review any legislation that imposes requirements or conditions on business.
Any review should be published within 5 years of the legislation implementation date. In addition, the legislation covered by this review contain review clauses that align with SBEEA.
The Department of Health and Social Care committed to reviewing this legislation within 5 years of coming into force or as required by the review clause.
The aim of this review is to:
- assess if each reviewed legislation is achieving its objective and whether legislation is still the best way of achieving that objective
- review the health and economic impact of the legislation if this is not part of the regulation objective
- recommend whether the legislation should remain in force as it is, be amended or revoked
The post implementation review (PIR) will be used by ministers to make an informed decision about the impact of the legislation and how to proceed in the future.
3. Tobacco regulations
For the purposes of this consultation, the tobacco legislation included is outlined below:
- The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion (Display) (England) Regulations 2010
- The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion (Specialist Tobacconists) (England) regulations 2010
- The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion (Display of Prices) (England) Regulations 2010
- The Smoke-free (Private Vehicles) Regulations 2015 (Regulations 2, 3, 4 and 6 – England; Regulation 5 – England and Wales)
- The Nicotine Inhaling Products (Age of Sale and Proxy Purchasing) Regulations 2015 (England and Wales)
The overarching policy objective of all smoking legislation is to improve public health; however, each piece of legislation also has specific aims and objectives as outlined below.
This consultation does not cover the Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Regulations 2015 (SPoT) and the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 (TRPR).
A separate review for these legislations will be undertaken in 2020. Where relevant the PIR report will include evidence from devolved administrations.
4. The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion (Display) (England) Regulations 2010
These regulations apply to the display of tobacco products in small and large shops (display ban) and came into force on 6 April 2012 in larger shops and 6 April 2015 for all other outlets.
The regulations prohibit the display of tobacco products in small and large shops, allowing trading to continue but preventing them from being used as promotional tools. All retailers are required to cover up cigarettes and hide all tobacco products from public view.
4.1 Objectives
- to protect children and young people from the health harms of smoking
- to create a supportive environment for adults who are trying to quit smoking by implementing the prohibition of tobacco products displays
The regulations recognise that retailers need to be able to serve customers and restock products, and that staff need to know where products are kept.
4.2 Questions on The Tobacco Advertising and Promotion (Display) (England) Regulations 2010
5. The Tobacco and Advertising (Specialist Tobacconists) (England) Regulations 2010
These regulations apply to the display of tobacco products in specialist tobacconists and came into force on 6 April 2015.
These regulations provide exemptions for specialist tobacconists to the general prohibition of the display of tobacco products. They allow tobacco products to be displayed within specialist tobacconists as long as they are not visible from outside the shops.
Additionally, the legislation permits tobacco advertising provided it is in, or fixed to, the outside of premises of a specialist tobacconist and complies with prescribed conditions.
5.1 Objectives
- to protect children and young people from the health harms of smoking
- to create a supportive environment for adults who are trying to quit smoking by implementing the prohibition of tobacco products displays
The regulations recognise that retailers need to be able to serve customers and restock products, and that staff need to know where products are kept.
5.2 Questions on the Tobacco and Advertising (Specialist Tobacconists) (England) Regulations 2010
5.3 The Tobacco and Advertising (Display of Prices) (England) Regulations 2010
These regulations impose requirements on the display of prices of tobacco products in small and large shops and came into force on 6 April 2015.
The regulations permit only 3 types of tobacco price displays within retailers:
- Poster style lists (up to A3 in size) which can be permanently on show but must not exceed 1,250sq centimetres in size
- A list including pictures of products, which must not be left on permanent show, but can be shown to any customer aged 18 or over who asks for information on tobacco products sold; and
- Price labels, which can be placed on shelving, storage units or tobacco jars. One price label is permitted for each product either on the covered shelf where the product is stored or on the front of the storage unit.
5.4 Objectives
- to protect children and young people from the harms of smoking
- to create a supportive environment for adults who are trying to quit smoking by ensuring that price lists and labels cannot be exploited as forms of tobacco promotion
These regulations do recognise that shops and businesses need to display necessary information on what tobacco products they sell and for what price.
5.5 Questions on the Tobacco and Advertising (Display of Prices) (England) Regulations 2010
6. The Smoke-free (Private Vehicles) Regulations 2015
The regulations came into force as of 1st October 2015 and apply in England. Regulation 5; penalties and discounted amount also applies in Wales. These regulations make it an offence for:
- a person to smoke in a private vehicle when someone under the age of 18 is present
- a driver not to stop a person smoking when someone under the age of 18 is present
The regulations are thought to have minimal impact in business. Police authorities are the designated enforcement offices, with the power to issue Fixed Penalty Notices (FPN) to anyone found to be non-compliant with the law.
The full Smoke-free (Private Vehicles) Regulations 2015 are published on Legislation.gov.uk.
6.1 Objective
- to prevent adverse effects of second-hand smoke (SHS) on children in private vehicles, where the level of SHS can be significantly more concentrated than elsewhere. Intervention was deemed necessary as children are unable to exert their choice to leave the vehicle unlike adults.
6.2 Questions on The Smoke-free (Private Vehicles) Regulations 2015
7. The Nicotine Inhaling Products (Age of Sale and Proxy Purchasing) Regulations 2015
These regulations came into force as of 26 March 2015 for proxy purchasing and 1 October 2015 for all other provisions. These regulations apply in England and Wales.
The regulations prohibit both the sale of Nicotine Inhaling Products (NIPs) including e-cigarettes to under 18s, as well as the purchase of these products on behalf of a minor (proxy purchasing).
7.1 Objectives
-
to limit the sale of nicotine inhaling products (NIPs) such as electronic cigarettes (and related products including refill cartridges and nicotine liquids) to adults only, with only certain limited exceptions for medicinal products
-
to limit the availability of NIPs to under 18s, restricting the scope for young people to become addicted to nicotine, minimising potential gateway effect into smoking
7.2 Questions on the Nicotine Inhaling Products (Age of Sale and Proxy Purchasing) Regulations 2015
8. How to respond to this consultation
This consultation begins on Monday 22 July 2019 and will close on 15 September 2019.
Department of Health and Social Care policy officials will consider all responses to the consultation questions received during this period and consider these in finalising recommendations of the post implementation review of tobacco legislation.
You can respond to the consultation in writing, by email or by completing an online questionnaire.
8.1 Respond online
You can respond to the consultation online on our consultation platform.
It will help us to analyse the responses if respondents fill in the online consultation response document. The online questionnaire will be available for the whole consultation period.
8.2 Respond by email
If you wish to respond by email please complete a consultation response form and return it to healthybehaviours@dhsc.gov.uk.
8.3 Respond in writing
If you wish to respond in writing, you can complete the consultation response form and send it to the address below. If you would prefer not to use the form, or are unable to do so, please write with your answers and comments to:
Tobacco Legislation Consultation 2019
Healthy Behaviours
Department of Health and Social Care
2N04 Quarry House
LS2 7UE
9. Confidentiality of information
We manage the information you provide in response to this consultation in accordance with the Department of Health’s Information Charter.
Information we receive, including personal information, may be published or disclosed in accordance with the access to information regimes (primarily the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA), the Data Protection Act 1998 (DPA) and the Environmental Information Regulations 2004).
If you want the information that you provide to be treated as confidential, please be aware that, under the FOIA, there is a statutory Code of Practice with which public authorities must comply and which deals, amongst other things, with obligations of confidence. In view of this it would be helpful if you could explain to us why you regard the information you have provided as confidential.
If we receive a request for disclosure of the information we will take full account of your explanation, but we cannot give an assurance that confidentiality can be maintained in all circumstances. An automatic confidentiality disclaimer generated by your IT system will not, of itself, be regarded as binding on the department.
The department will process your personal data in accordance with the DPA and in most circumstances this will mean that your personal data will not be disclosed to third parties.
10. Next steps
Following the closing date of this consultation, policy officials at the Department of Health and Social Care will analyse the replies and publish a response document within 12 weeks of the consultation or provide an explanation as to why this is not possible. The consultation response will set out the main findings resulting from the submissions made to the consultation.
Responses to this consultation will be made available before or alongside any further action, such as laying legislation before Parliament, and will be placed on the gov.uk/dhsc website.
11. Comments on the consultation process
If you have concerns or comments which you would like to make relating specifically to the consultation process itself, please contact the consultations coordinator at:
Department of Health and Social Care
2E26, Quarry House
Leeds
LS2 7UE
Email: consultations.co-ordinator@dhsc.gov.uk
Please do not send consultation responses to this address.