England plans to raise legal age for buying tobacco each year to create “smoke-free” generation

The government has tabled plans to raise the legal age for buying cigarettes in England by one year every year, so that children who turn 14 this year will never legally be sold a cigarette.Proposed new legislation announced on 4 October by the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, will make it an offence for anyone born from 1 January 2009 to be sold tobacco products—effectively raising the legal smoking age by a year each year until it applies to the whole population.The government said that the plan had the potential to phase out smoking in young people almost completely by as early as 2040, creating the first “smoke-free” generation.Announcing the proposals in his keynote speech to the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, Sunak said, “No parent ever wants their child to start smoking. It is a deadly habit—killing tens of thousands of people and costing our NHS billions each year, while…
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