Tobacco: Illicit Trade

Lord McFall of Alcluith Excerpts

Tuesday 14th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

I am afraid I do not know the answer to that, but I am sure that my noble friend will be able to tell me.

[Lord McFall of Alcluith (Lab)]

My Lords, a past parliamentary report indicated that one in three of the cigarettes sold in the shops and streets of London was illegal. Has that situation improved and can the Government give us the latest update on those figures?

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

There is a big problem with the illicit trade in tobacco, although it has come down over the last 10 years. The tax gap has reduced and there has been a small reduction in the amount of smoking. As for the reduction of revenue that we get due to illicit trade, there has been a small improvement in that, down from 22% to 10% on cigarettes and from 61% to 35% on tobacco. But things change, and the problem evolves continually, so it requires a lot of extra effort. In the Budget, the Chancellor announced extra money to combat this problem.