In the

United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...

, smoking is legally permitted, with certain conditions set from

laws Law is a set of rules that are created and are enforceable by social or governmental institutions to regulate behavior,Robertson, ''Crimes against humanity'', 90. with its precise definition a matter of longstanding debate. It has been vari ...

enacted separately in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is illegal to smoke tobacco in enclosed public places, such as restaurants, shops or pubs, under the

Health Act 2006 The Health Act 2006 (c 28) is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It provides for a number of administrative changes in the National Health Service. Part 1 - Smoking Chapter 1 - Smoke-free premises, places and vehicles The Act is ...

for England and Wales, the Smoking (Northern Ireland) Order 2006 for Northern Ireland and the

Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005 The Smoking, Health and Social Care (Scotland) Act 2005 (asp 13) is an Act of the Scottish Parliament passed in 2005, after being introduced by Scottish Executive Health minister Andy Kerr. The Act established that, from 26 March 2006, it would ...

for Scotland. It is also illegal to smoke in a car if one is transporting people under 18 or if a vehicle is being used for work purposes. Smoking is prevalent among a sizeable, but continuously reducing minority of the population. It has been argued that smoking puts considerable strain upon the

NHS The National Health Service (NHS) is the umbrella term for the publicly funded healthcare systems of the United Kingdom (UK). Since 1948, they have been funded out of general taxation. There are three systems which are referred to using the " ...

due to the

health problems A disease is a particular abnormal condition that negatively affects the structure or function of all or part of an organism, and that is not immediately due to any external injury. Diseases are often known to be medical conditions that ar ...

which can be directly linked with smoking. Successive UK Governments have endeavoured to reduce the prevalence of smoking. As part of this commitment, the NHS currently offers free help to smokers who want to quit.

Prevalence

In 1962, over 70% of British men and 40% of British women smoked. As recently as 1974, 45% of the British population smoked. This was down to 30% by the early 1990s, 21% by 2010, and 19.3% by 2013, the lowest level recorded for eighty years. An annual No Smoking Day has occurred in March since 1984. In 2015, it was reported smoking rates in England had fallen to just 16.9%, a record low. In 2018, the UK smoking rate had fallen to 14.4%. 25–34 year olds had the highest smoking rate, with approximately 1 in 5 people within this age range (around 1.4 million adults) being smokers. In 2019, one in five Scottish people — 850,000 adults — identified as smokers. Approximately 28% of men and 25% of women in Scotland smoked regularly in 2018, a rate higher than that of the United Kingdom as a whole. Intentions of cigarette smokers on quitting over time in Great Britain

Intentions of cigarette smokers on quitting over time in Great Britain

Smoking prevalence varies with geography. In self-reported

Annual Population Survey The Annual Population Survey (APS) is a combined statistical survey of households in Great Britain which is conducted quarterly by the Office for National Statistics (ONS). It combines results from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) and the English, W ...

data, the

local authorities Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

Kingston upon Hull Kingston upon Hull, usually abbreviated to Hull, is a port city and unitary authority in the East Riding of Yorkshire, England. It lies upon the River Hull at its confluence with the Humber Estuary, inland from the North Sea and south-ea ...

and Blackpool had consistently high smoking prevalence rates of 22.2% and 23.4% respectively in 2019, while

Ribble Valley Ribble Valley is a local government district with borough status within the non-metropolitan county of Lancashire, England. The total population of the non-metropolitan district at the 2011 Census was 57,132. Its council is based in Clitheroe. ...

and

Rushcliffe Rushcliffe is a local government district with borough status in Nottinghamshire, England. The population of the Local Authority at the 2011 Census was 111,129. Its councilRushcliffe Borough Council It is estimated that in some of the most deprived communities in Scotland, smoking rates may be as high as 47%. An estimated 40% of adults smoke in the constituency of Glasgow East, one of the most deprived seats in the entire United Kingdom. File:Percentage of cigarette smokers by sex and total in Great Britain.svg File:Percentage of people who do not smoke over time by sex and total in Great Britain.svg File:Percentages of smokers who have quit by sex in Great Britain.svg File:Percentage of all cigarette smokers by age group in Great Britain.svg File:Percentage of male cigarette smokers by age group in Great Britain.svg File:Percentage of female cigarette smokers by age group in Great Britain.svg File:Percentage of people who have never smoked by age group in Great Britain.svg File:Percentage of males who have never smoked by age group in Great Britain.svg File:Percentage of females who have never smoked by age group in Great Britain.svg File:Percentage of all cigarette smokers who have quit in Great Britain.svg File:Percentage of male cigarette smokers who have quit in Great Britain.svg File:Percentage of female cigarette smokers who have quit in Great Britain.svg

Health issues

It has been estimated by

Cancer Research UK Cancer Research UK (CRUK) is the world's largest independent cancer research organization. It is registered as a charity in the United Kingdom and Isle of Man, and was formed on 4 February 2002 by the merger of The Cancer Research Campaign and t ...

that smoking is the single greatest cause of preventable illness and early death, with around 107,000 people dying in 2007 from smoking-related diseases, including cancers, in the UK. Around 86% of lung cancer deaths in the UK are caused by tobacco smoking; overall tobacco smoking is estimated to be responsible for more than a quarter of cancer deaths in the UK, around 43,000 deaths in 2007. The British Medical Journal states that due to the drive to help smokers quit smoking, Britain has the world's largest reduction in the number of deaths from lung cancer. In 1950, the UK had one of the highest rates in the world. The annual number of deaths from lung cancer in 2000 was half of what it was in 1965. Reducing the prevalence of smoking to 5% could avoid nearly 100,000 new cases of smoking-related disease including 35,900 cancers over twenty years and save £67,000,000 a year in health- and social-care costs, according to research commissioned by Cancer Research UK.

Age restrictions

England and Wales

From

1908 Events January * January 1 – The British ''Nimrod'' Expedition led by Ernest Shackleton sets sail from New Zealand on the ''Nimrod'' for Antarctica. * January 3 – A total solar eclipse is visible in the Pacific Ocean, and is the 4 ...

until 2007, the minimum age to purchase and consume tobacco products in public was 16 years of age. From 1 October 2007, the Children and Young Persons (Sale of Tobacco etc.) Order 2007 became effective, raising the minimum purchase age to 18 years of age.

Scotland

Until 30 September 2007, the minimum age to purchase and consume tobacco products in public was 16 years of age. From 30 September 2007, the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010 became effective, raising the minimum purchase, consumption, and possession age to 18 years of age.

Northern Ireland

Until 31 August 2008, the minimum age to purchase and consume tobacco products in public was 16 years of age. From 1 September 2008 the Children and Young Persons (Sale of Tobacco etc.) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2008 became effective, raising the minimum purchase, consumption and possession age to 18 years of age.

Smoking bans

Smoking in workplaces and enclosed public spaces has been illegal since 26 March 2006 in Scotland, 2 April 2007 in Wales, 30 April 2007 in Northern Ireland and 1 July 2007 in

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...

. On 1 October 2015, a law was passed which banned smoking in vehicles with anyone under eighteen years of age present. The law does not apply to e-cigarettes, if the driver is seventeen years of age and alone in the vehicle, or in a convertible with the roof completely down.

Further restrictions

On 6 April 2012, the display of tobacco products was banned in retailers larger than 280 square metres in England. The ban affected small retailers three years later on 6 April 2015. In Scotland, a ban on the display of tobacco products for large retailers entered into force in April 2013. The ban for display for small retailers entered into force in April 2015. In March 2011, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government committed itself to holding a public consultation on the introduction of

plain tobacco packaging Plain tobacco packaging, also known as generic, neutral, standardised or homogeneous packaging, is packaging of tobacco products, typically cigarettes, without any branding (colours, imagery, corporate logos and trademarks), including only the b ...

. Influenced by the introduction of plain packaging in Australia, the House of Commons voted 367–113 in March 2015 to pass the Children and Families Act 2014, which gave the government the power to require plain packaging for tobacco products. This came into force on 20 May 2016, but tobacco companies were given one year to sell off remaining stock, after which all tobacco products sold in the UK would have to follow plain packaging laws.

Electronic cigarettes

Despite the name "e-cigarette," these devices contain no tobacco and produce no smoke. They are used as an alternative to smoking, or as devices where it increasingly looks like they are helping young people avoid smoking. Two hospitals run by

Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals NHS Trust Sandwell and West Birmingham NHS Trust is one of the largest National Health Service teaching Trusts in England and comprises Sandwell General Hospital in West Bromwich, City Hospital, Birmingham and Rowley Regis Hospital. The trust was establi ...

opened vape shops in 2019 in conjunction with a ban on smoking.

Public Health England Public Health England (PHE) was an executive agency of the Department of Health and Social Care in England which began operating on 1 April 2013 to protect and improve health and wellbeing and reduce health inequalities. Its formation came as a ...

advises hospitals to let patients vape indoors and in bed. On 2 April 2014, the

Welsh Government , image = , caption = , date_established = , country = Wales , address = , leader_title = First Minister () , appointed = First Minister approved by the Senedd, ceremonially appointed ...

published a public health

white paper A white paper is a report or guide that informs readers concisely about a complex issue and presents the issuing body's philosophy on the matter. It is meant to help readers understand an issue, solve a problem, or make a decision. A white pape ...

in which it proposed a ban on the use of e-cigarettes in public spaces. The Bill was subsequently defeated. The annual Smokefree GB survey, published in May 2017, concluded that 52% of the 2.9 million British e-cigarette users are now ex-smokers. 26% of respondents thought e-cigarettes were as harmful as real cigarettes. In March 2017, it was reported by ''

The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are popular names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaide, South Australia, publ ...

'' that the UK's e-cigarette boom is in decline, with the number of people using e-cigarettes in Britain decreasing for the first time since their launch. In 2019, there were estimated to be 3 million e-cigarette users in Great Britain, with approximately half reporting using them as an aid to stop smoking. File:Percentage of people who vape in Great Britain.svg, Percentage of people who vape in Great Britain File:Percentage of men who vape in Great Britain.svg, Percentage of men who vape in Great Britain File:Percentage of females who vape in Great Britain.svg, Percentage of females who vape in Great Britain File:Percentage of people who have never vaped in Great Britain.svg, Percentage of people who have never vaped in Great Britain File:Percentage of men who have never vaped in Great Britain.svg, Percentage of men who have never vaped in Great Britain File:Percentage of females who have never vaped in Great Britain.svg, Percentage of females who have never vaped in Great Britain

References

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