Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, what estimate he has made of (a) lost business to convenience stores and (b) lost revenue to the Exchequer due to smokers purchasing black market tobacco.

No assessment has been made of the impact of the illicit tobacco market on business sectors such as convenience stores. The tax gap for tobacco was £2.5 billion in 2016-17. Of this tobacco duty was £1.9 billion and associated VAT was £0.6 billion. The details are published on GOV.UK (‘Tobacco tax gap estimates 2016-17’):

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/tobacco-tax-gap-estimates