Smoking campaigners call for tough new targets on tobacco smuggling

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) have called on the Chancellor to use the Pre-Budget report to set far more ambitious targets for tackling the illegal market in tobacco products in the UK.

Deborah Arnott, Director of the health campaigning charity ASH, said “A good deal of progress has been made in tackling tobacco smuggling but much more still needs to be done. We hope that the new Government strategy will include challenging new targets, more resources to help achieve those targets, and a commitment to sign the EU anti-smuggling agreements.”

Currently tobacco smuggling is costing the UK economy around £2.4 billion a year in lost revenue. Tobacco smuggling also undermines health policy and exacerbates health inequalities: Recent research commissioned by ASH found that 1 in 4 poorer people buy illicit tobacco compared to 1 in 8 of the most affluent. ASH is calling for a target of a reducing the proportion of illegal tobacco sold from the current 13%, to 8% of total market share by 2010 and to 3% by 2015.
ASH is also calling for an effective tackle tobacco smuggling enforcement strategy inland as well as at the border. To be successful this requires the involvement of the Border agency, HM Revenue & Customs, the police and Serious Organised Crime Agency, local government (Trading Standards officers) and the Department of Health. At regional and local level, greater collaboration is needed between the NHS, local government, the police and UK Border Agency. This can be achieved via local strategic partnerships and crime and disorder reduction partnerships.

The Association of Convenience Stores (ACS) supports these proposals. ACS Public Affairs Director Shane Brennan said: “The tobacco black market is one of the biggest risks to health in deprived communities; tackling it has to be the centrepiece of the Government’s tobacco control strategy. We support ASH’s proposals, the targets have to be ambitious and the action taken to make a difference in the communities has to be innovative, based on a multi-agency approach and properly supported with investment.

Source: acs.org.uk, 18 November 2008