Tobacco and Vapes Bill

Lord Scriven Excerpts

2nd reading
Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Scriven (LD)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to follow the noble Lord, Lord Naseby. He talked about his long history in the industry since 1963; I was born three years after he started. For nine months in my mother’s womb I was a passive smoker, because she was a smoker.

The Bill is driven by noble intentions. Quite rightly, it seeks to protect future generations from the serious harms of smoking and the trend of vaping in young people. These are very good public health objectives and ones that I support, as I saw both of my parents’ lives cut short due to smoking-related diseases. I support many provisions within the Bill, but I have serious reservations about the centrepiece: the so-called smoke-free generation. This mechanism raises profound practical, legal and philosophical problems.

I start with the principle which underpins my objections: individual liberty, which I, as a Liberal, consider to be the foundation of a free society. In the United Kingdom, the legal age of adulthood is 18 and, at 18, citizens can make many bad choices that carry risks with them. These include drinking alcohol, gambling and, currently, purchasing tobacco. The Bill proposes to strip away one of these rights from some adults because of the year in which they were born. Personal liberty and individual choice play no part for those adults.

Consider, if you will, two young adults, perhaps twins, born a minute apart, one just before midnight on 31 December 2008 and the other just after, on 1 January 2009. Under the Bill, when they become 18, one would be able to legally buy tobacco for the rest of their lives and the other may never do so. The Bill creates, for the first time, two classes of adult citizens with different legal rights based not on action or consent but on something entirely out of their control: their date of birth. The Government have an interest in protecting public health, but that interest must always be balanced against personal liberty and equity before the law. The Bill does not do that. It creates an unjustifiable inequity in the law.

Even if one were to set aside these philosophical concerns, there is a more immediate issue that we must grapple with: enforcement. Laws that cannot be enforced are worse than being ineffective; they breed contempt for the very institutions that create them. I fear this Bill falls squarely into that category. Not only will retailers be expected to verify that a consumer is over 18 but that will continue for years to come. Imagine the confusion at the tills and the inevitable mistakes, disputes and frustrations. In time, a 35 year-old will be legally permitted to buy tobacco while a 34 year-old will not be. Who will be checking their ID, and how will they make sure that that distinction is absolutely clear?

Also, let us not forget the social dynamics: siblings, friends and parents still legally allowed to purchase tobacco will inevitably be asked to buy—and even pressured into buying—tobacco for adults who cannot. Can you imagine a smoking wife, who can purchase tobacco, refusing to supply her younger husband who cannot buy it? Enforcement agencies are already under immense pressure. Are we truly expecting officers to monitor our gardens, beer gardens and private homes in search of cigarette sharing between consenting adults? Such a law invites ridicule because it is unenforceable.

History gives us a clear warning that any form of prohibition rarely eliminates demand. Instead, it often pushes it underground, where criminal networks thrive. We see it with alcohol and we have seen it with drugs. International evidence shows us what happens when you try to significantly restrict the sale of tobacco: illicit tobacco sales start showing up more, especially in communities where there are fewer legal retailers. Convenience stores in New Zealand reported increased thefts and robberies targeting tobacco products, indicating an underground demand. Customs and law enforcement in New Zealand also noted a rise in smuggling and illegal imports. When legitimate, regulated access is denied, serious illegal alternatives fill the vacuum. So I caution noble Lords as we go forward against totally believing that age restriction can and will work. I ask noble Lords to look at the core mechanism in Committee.