Date set for ban on cigarette displays

THE ban on displaying cigarettes and vending machine sales of cigarettes will be introduced on 29 April, the Scottish Government revealed yesterday.

Large shops will be prohibited from openly displaying tobacco products and vending machine sales will be outlawed from that date.

The move follows the defeat of a legal challenge launched last December by one of the world’s biggest tobacco firms.

The Supreme Court dismissed an appeal mounted by Imperial Tobacco, which argued that the law dealing with display bans was reserved to Westminster, and so fell outwith the scope of the Scottish Government.

A wider ban, as set out in the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010, will come into force for smaller retailers on 6 April, 2015.