Tobacco: Illicit Trade

Lord Pearson of Rannoch Excerpts

Tuesday 14th June 2016 Lords Chamber

[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.

[Lord Pearson of Rannoch (UKIP)]

My Lords, if the noble Lord does not know the answer to the question put by the noble Lord, Lord Tebbit, would he be good enough to discover it and let the rest of us know? Could it be that the EU is still doing that?

[Lord Ashton of Hyde]

As I said, I do not know the answer, but of course I will write to him and tell him.