Minimum smoking age to rise

Published on Sunday 2 July 2006 01:32

THE minimum age for buying cigarettes will be raised to 18 in Scotland as early as next spring in the latest attempt by ministers to tackle the nation's abysmal health record.

An expert group on tobacco use is expected to report back within weeks that the current minimum age of 16 should be scrapped and brought into line with the laws on alcohol.

Deputy health minister Lewis Macdonald, who is in charge of smoking legislation, has already decided to back the move, with a change in the law possible before the next Holyrood election in May 2007.

The change in the law means that teenagers who can legally have sex, get married and fight for their country will no longer be able to light up before they reach 18.

Ministers, emboldened by the success of the ban on smoking in enclosed public places and disturbed by figures showing high rates of under-age smoking in Scotland, have decided it is time to toughen up the law.

The move comes after the British Medical Association declared earlier this week that 16-year-olds should no longer be allowed to buy cigarettes.

International evidence has shown that where the age limit is increased, smoking rates among the young drop markedly.

Currently, around 19% of Scottish 15-year-olds and 6% of 13-year-olds are regular smokers, the BMA estimates.

Ministers were granted the powers to raise the age limit last year when the Scottish Parliament passed the smoking ban. However, they said that before acting, they would wait for the findings of an expert group.

That group, chaired by public health expert Dr Laurence Gruer, is currently finalising its draft report, due to be published in the autumn.

A Labour source said: "They have given Lewis Macdonald a summary of their conclusions and it backs an increase in the age limit. Now that we have got the public ban, it makes sense."

With the report soon to land on ministers' desks, there is little stopping the Executive making a change in the law which would have immediate effect. Senior Labour sources say the age limit increase could be enacted by next spring.

The change in the law would match measures currently being undertaken in England. A consultation exercise will begin next week at Westminster, but it is understood that the government is already persuaded of the merits of the change.

The move is supported by the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation and by the Trading Standards Institute. Even the smokers' rights group Forest says it is not opposed. A spokesman said: "We don't have a problem at all with raising the age limit. Smoking is for adults. However, the government doesn't enforce the age limit. Last year, there were no prosecutions at all for selling cigarettes to children, so they can raise the age limit all they want, but what is the point if they are not going to enforce it?"

Members of the expert group have explained their rationale.

Professor Gerard Hastings, director of the Centre for Tobacco Control Research, University of Stirling, said: "As part of a package of measures, like stopping tobacco advertising and banning smoking in public, an increase in the age limit has much to recommend it."

Maureen Moore from Ash Scotland, who also sits on the group, said: "We support this move because it is much more dangerous than alcohol, which is banned at 18. To bring it in line with alcohol would be sensible."

Labour MSP Duncan McNeil, whose amendment will allow ministers to change the law immediately, said: "The minister said that he would wait until this working group reported and then he would act appropriately. I would hope that he acts speedily in this regard."

The new move is just the latest plan by ministers to build on the smoking ban introduced in March this year.

Now pregnant women in Dundee are to be offered 'bribes' worth up to 50 per month to stop smoking. They will get vouchers for fresh fruit and vegetables, relaxation classes and aqua aerobics if they can prove they have quit during pregnancy.

The scheme, to be introduced this autumn, is believed to be the first in Britain to offer direct incentives for expectant mothers to quit smoking. To claim their rewards each month, the women will have to blow into a machine that measures the blood's carbon monoxide content.

Off-duty taxi driver fined after daughter lights up

A TAXI driver has revealed how an off-duty mercy mission for a desperate relative turned into a distressing and expensive tangle with Scotland's toughest smoking ban enforcers.

Cabbie Robert Cowan, from Tayport in Fife, was pulled over by two undercover health officers as he gave his daughter a lift in his private-hire taxi after her car had broken down.

The 61-year-old driver was landed with a 200 fine for allowing Amanda, a civil servant, to smoke in his taxi, even though he was off duty. They were also detained by the roadside for an hour, even though his 29-year-old daughter was on her way to pick up her child.

Cowan's case emerged during a Scotland on Sunday survey of how the ban on smoking in public places has been enforced in the first 100 days since it was introduced on March 26.

While most councils have taken a soft approach by issuing just a handful of warnings, Dundee and North Ayrshire have emerged as hardliners, handing out 21 fines between them.

The figures have also revealed that rather than pubs and clubs being the worst offenders, it is cabbies, van drivers and bus companies that are the surprise culprits.

Cowan, who is registered to work in east Fife, is thought to be one of the first taxi drivers to be handed a penalty for allowing a passenger to smoke in his cab.

Cowan was targeted by anti-smoking enforcers in Dundee as he tried to help his frantic daughter collect her son from a childminder after her car broke down.

To calm her frazzled nerves, Amanda lit a cigarette, unaware she was getting her father into trouble.

Although his Skoda Octavia is a registered taxi in Fife, it also doubles as his private family car. But under the legislation, smoking is banned at all times in any vehicle used as a workplace and by members of the public.

As the pair waited at traffic lights in the city centre, they were spotted by two council officials behind them in an unmarked car.

The officials ordered Cowan to pull over, fining him 200 and giving Amanda a 50 penalty.

Cowan said: "This ban was not supposed to be an infringement on civil liberties, but that is exactly what it was in my case.

"I told them that I was off duty and the car was being used as private transport, but they would not listen, even though my meter and my radio were both off.

"I was not aware that the ban applied all the time in private-hire taxis. I held up my hands to allowing my daughter to smoke and said it was through ignorance that I had done it.

"The enforcers seemed like they were just on a power trip.

They don't have the power to detain anyone, but they kept us at the side of the road for nearly an hour, even though Amanda needed to pick up her son from the childminder."

Cowan and his daughter both appealed against their fines, and a hearing held by Dundee City Council's environmental health department in May agreed to withdraw Amanda's fine and issue a warning instead.

But Cowan was told he would still have to pay his penalty as he should have been aware of how the legislation affected taxis.

Since the ban came in to force, enforcement officers have found 124 cases of the law being breached and 32 fixed penalty notices have been given out to premises and individuals.

Environmental health officers have also received 570 tip-offs from the public about people breaking the ban, and inspectors have visited 23,000 premises.