Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Bill - Regulation of Tobacco Sales
What
The Bill establishes a national register of tobacco retailers, which will require all tobacco retailers to be registered in order to sell tobacco. There will be one national register and it will cost retailers nothing to register. This will operate in conjunction with a fixed penalty notice scheme and the ability for courts to impose tobacco banning orders.
When
It is envisaged that the registration scheme will come into effect in 2011.
Why
Underage young people continue to have little difficulty in accessing cigarettes from shops.
This registration scheme gives a wider range of tools to trading standards to better enforce age restriction laws whilst keeping the costs to the public purse to an absolute minimum and with the least possible administrative burden on retailers.
This 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 six months.
Costs
Costs to the industry will be minimal and can be expected to merely involve the one-off labour cost needed to fill in a simple registration form.
The Scottish Government will pay for a marketing campaign to give retailers information about the necessity to comply with the scheme and the process to be undertaken and will pay for establishing and maintaining the national database. It is estimated that these costs will be in the region of £400,000 in the first year with running costs of £10,000 every year thereafter. There will be no additional costs to local government.
Consultation
In 2007 the then Scottish Executive consulted on introducing only a negative licensing scheme, which received support. The Scottish Government has since consulted with stakeholders, including retailers and trading standards, and has wide-ranging support for the introduction of a registration scheme.
Background
The latest survey indicates that 57 per cent of 15 year old smokers and 42 per cent of 13 year old smokers reported buying their own cigarettes from shops.
Under current legislation, retailers can be prosecuted for selling tobacco to people under-18s with a maximum fine of £2,500. Despite the fact that under-18s report that tobacco is widely available to them from retail outlets, prosecutions have been rare. In the six years since 2002 there have been only 23 convictions with an average fine of £188.
More vigorous enforcement of age restriction law will be secured through the outcomes agreed between Scottish local authorities and the Scottish Government under the Enhanced Tobacco Sales Enforcement Programme (launched yesterday), backed by £4.5 million of additional funding over three years.
Sources: Drug Misuse Information Scotland