Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Bill - Q&A
General
How many smokers are there in Scotland? Is this going up or down?
Smoking rates have fallen from 30.4% in 1999 to 25.2% in 2008.
Latest Scottish survey results for 2006 suggest smoking prevalence among 15 year olds has declined since its peak in 1996 from 30% for both boys and girls to 14% and 16% respectively. Regular smoking is more common among disadvantaged young people.
Smoking rates amongst 16-24 year olds fell between 1999 and 2004 from 31% to 25%, but then rose again to 30% in 2007 only to fall again to 27.5% in 2008 (it should be noted however that the sample size for this age group is considerably lower than that of the 16+, 13 and 15 yr old age groups and should be interpreted with caution).
How much do we spend on smoking cessation?
The Scottish Government invests record levels in our world class NHS smoking cessation service. This year the Scottish Government has invested £14 million in NHS smoking cessation services and will invest at least £37 million this spending review. Funding for these services for the last spending review period was £27 million.
Have you consulted on these proposals?
A consultation on proposals was conducted in 2007. Tobacco retailers have been given full opportunity to feed into our regulatory impact assessment on proposals and the Scottish Government will continue to engage with retailers to ensure that there is the minimum impact on business.
Tobacco Sales
What's the difference between a registration scheme and a licensing scheme?
A licensing scheme is administratively burdensome on authorities and retailers, as the retailer has to provide a sufficient level of information to allow the relevant authority to determine whether a retailer should be allowed to sell a product. A registration scheme merely requires a retailer to notify authorities that they are selling a product and is, therefore less costly to administer.
How will the fixed penalty notice scheme and banning orders work?
The Bill gives powers to trading standards officers to issue fixed penalty notices for all offences contained in the Bill, including selling tobacco to under-18s, displaying tobacco products or not being on the register. The level of fixed penalty notice is yet to be determined and will be subject to public consultation. If a retailer has been found to be in breach of tobacco sales legislation three times within a two year period (either through a fixed penalty notice or a criminal conviction) a local authority can apply to the courts to have the retailer banned from selling tobacco. A court can ban a retailer from selling tobacco for up to a year.
What are you doing about rogue traders?
The introduction of a registration scheme will create a new offence that will protect Scottish businesses that sell tobacco. For the first time under tobacco sales law, those found to be selling tobacco illegally can be charged up to £20,000 and sent to prison for up to 6 months.
Why not just better enforce existing age restriction laws?
We are. Yesterday the Minister for Public Health launched the Enhanced Tobacco Sales Enforcement Programme, backed by £4.5mn over 3 years. This scheme will see the Scottish Government, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and trading standards officers throughout Scotland working together to better enforce existing age restriction laws. An important component of the programme will be work with retailers to offer support and advice on how to avoid illegal sales by adopting a "no proof, no sale" policy.
Displays
Is there any evidence that this will work?
Yes. There are a number of studies to suggest that getting rid of point of sale displays of tobacco products will protect children from tobacco promotion and reduce the recruitment to smoking. Some studies have shown that retail tobacco marketing results in a 50% increase in the odds of ever smoking amongst young people.
Which countries have already banned the display of tobacco products?
Two countries, Iceland and Thailand, 12 Canadian provinces and territories, the Australian state of Tasmania, and the British Virgin Islands have adopted legislation to ban tobacco displays. A ban on tobacco displays will come into effect in the Republic of Ireland on 1st July 2009.
What effect has this had?
Legislation to ban tobacco displays has only recently come into effect in a handful of countries/territories, with Iceland being the first to introduce a displays ban in 2001. Whilst reductions in youth smoking have been observed in countries/territories that have implemented the displays ban it is difficult to isolate one particular public health measure and quantify its effect. What we do know is that point of sale display is an important marketing tool for tobacco companies in recruiting new smokers, which undermines our efforts to improve the public health of Scotland.
What arrangements are being made for specialist tobacco retailers?
Specialist tobacconists will continue to be allowed to display all tobacco products other than cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco.
What is being done to mitigate the effect of these proposals on small businesses?
The Scottish Government is committed to a vibrant small business sector and is doing a great deal to support the small business sector in Scotland through, for example, reduced business rates under the Small Business Bonus Scheme, which will save millions for Scotland's small businesses.
The Scottish Government has consulted extensively with the representative groups of small tobacco retailers, including the National Federation of Retail Newsagents and the Scottish Grocers' Federation. Small businesses will be given an additional 2 years to implement the displays ban, to minimise the impact on their business.
Will you ban the display of alcohol?
We have already acted to restrict alcohol displays within licensed premises, from 1 September 2009.
Footfall and display ban
We know from extensive consultation with small tobacco retailers that footfall from customers purchasing tobacco is essential to the survival of their business. The displays ban is intended to remove a marketing tool of the tobacco industry in recruiting new smokers and not to prevent adult smokers from purchasing tobacco. In fact a key finding of a recent paper produced by Cancer Research UK found that point of sale displays bans could have no impact on footfall as it is the stocking of cigarettes and not point of sale displays that encourages smokers to visit a shop and purchase other goods.
Costs to Business
Won't there be excessive costs for retailers involved in these proposals?
Whilst there can be no compromise on protecting children and young people from cancer, heart disease and other smoking-related illnesses, we have given tobacco retailers full opportunity to feed into a regulatory impact assessment on proposals and the Scottish Government will continue to engage with retailers to ensure that there is the minimum impact on business.
Provisions in relation to displays will not come into effect until 2011 for larger retailers and 2013 for small retailers. The Scottish Government has afforded retailers this long lead in time to allow business, and particularly small businesses, to refit shops as part of planned refurbishments, which will keep costs to a minimum.
Retailers will face no cost to be on the national tobacco sales register .
Rest of UK
How do the measures proposed in Scotland compare with proposals south of the border?
The Department of Health has already legislated to introduce a fixed penalty notice scheme and banning orders. The Department of Health has recently published its Health Bill, which contains provisions to ban the display of tobacco products and further regulate vending machines.
Why are there no provisions to ban packs of 10?
Whilst there are arguments on both sides, we would have been inclined to take powers to ban packs of 10 following more detailed research in this area. However, we do not have legislative competence as this is deemed to be a weights and measures issue. We will continue to pursue this matter at a UK level.
Tobacco Control Unit
January 2009