SNP mulls full ban on cigarette vending machines

Published on Monday 22 December 2008 21:02

THE Scottish Government is to crack down on the use of cigarette vending machines by youngsters, it was confirmed today.

Shona Robison, the public health minister, pledged that legislation to be introduced next year will include further controls on the sale of tobacco from such machines to restrict access by children and young people.

She made the pledge in a letter to a back-bench Nationalist MSP, Kenneth Gibson, who has a motion before parliament calling for a ban on the machines. He said: "It may be getting more difficult for people under the legal age to buy cigarettes over the counter, but it is still easy to access vending machines."

Organisations including Ash, the BMA, Asthma UK, Cancer Research and the Royal College of Physicians are contacting all MSPs in a joint letter

calling for the government to "ban tobacco vending machines outright".

Ms Robison said in a letter to Mr Gibson there is a "clear need" for further controls on the sale of tobacco from vending machines to restrict access by youngsters.

It emerged last week that the number of young people smoking in Scotland has returned to a level last seen nearly ten years ago. Nearly a third of people between 16-24 are smokers, according to a report by health officials.

A Scottish Government spokeswoman said that a full ban was being looked at.

"Banning vending machines is under active consideration as part of our health bill, which is expected to be introduced next year," the spokeswoman added.