Small shops will close and illegal traders will prosper if retailers are made to hide legal tobacco products in their stores under the new UK tobacco display ban, according to new research from the Democracy Institute (DI), a politically independent public policy research organisation based in London and Washington.
The previous government had planned to impose a tobacco display ban in England in 2011 in larger stores and in 2013 in small stores. As a result of these findings however the National Federation of Retail Newsagents (NFRN), one of Europe’s largest retail trade associations with over 18,000 retailer members, is renewing its call for the new coalition government to honour its promises to reconsider the measure.
Dr Patrick Basham, director of the Democracy Institute, has written the report. His findings show the measure has failed to reduce smoking in all countries that have introduced it: namely Canada, Iceland, Ireland and Thailand. Dr Basham’s paper will be published later this month in the quarterly journal of The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA), Economic Affairs.
Dr Basham has presented his findings to MPs at the House of Commons at a talk sponsored by Philip Davies MP.
Outgoing president of the NFRN, Suleman Khonat, said: “We place great hope in the new government following through on its pre-election promise to revise or revoke the ban. Doing so would firmly demonstrate its credibility on de-regulation and supporting small business.
“Abandoning something proven to be ineffective to focus on credible anti-smoking initiatives would demonstrate a commitment to health over headlines.
He added: “Great things could be achieved in partnership with retailers who are at the front line of preventing minors from getting their hands on tobacco. The previous government seemed more interested in working against us. We invite the new government to work with us.”
In the two years since Canada introduced a display ban youth smoking rates have increased by 2% according to data published by Europe Economics and evidence from Health Canada.
Meanwhile Ireland, which has also pursued a draconian ‘tax and ban’ approach to tobacco, has seen smoking rise by 7% in the past three years. It addition, smoking prevalence in Ireland is 7% above the EU average.
A recent Populus survey shows that the vast majority of the UK public do not believe in the measure and only 15 per cent would oppose its abandonment.
Dr Basham said “I had written previously of the dearth of evidence to support the ban. Now there is proof positive that it will not achieve its objective but will hurt honest retailers by imposing a damaging regulatory and cost burden and facilitating illicit traders.
“Previous health ministers put great stock on the supposed effectiveness of bans in Canada. That myth has now been fully exploded.”
“The last government, in a shocking waste of taxpayer’s money, partially funded a campaign to create an illusion of public support for the ban. It now seems that the public support we were told about is as much of an illusion as the evidence base. The case for abandoning the display ban has gotten a lot stronger in recent weeks”.
