County council announces support to make a generation of non-smokers a reality

The proposed new law would prevent children born from 2009 onwards, from ever legally being sold cigarettes in England – effectively raising the smoking age by a year, each year until it applies to the whole population.

Liz Fairhurst, Hampshire County Council’s executive lead member for adult services and public health, said, “Hampshire has nearly 120,000 smokers and almost every hour of every day, someone is admitted to hospital in our county because of smoking.

“As a Local Authority, we welcome this national move to help stop young people from taking up smoking. It is a highly addictive habit that often begins when people are young and impressionable yet remains with them their whole lives. Making it illegal to sell cigarettes to young people will help protect an entire generation from the harms of smoking as they grow older.”

While the number of adults smoking in Hampshire has fallen over time, according to the public health charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), smoking is estimated to cost Hampshire and the county's local economy over £348m last year, £98m of which was on health and social care costs and £246m on productivity.