Both chambers of Britain’s parliament have approved a bill that would ban children aged 17 and under from buying cigarettes during their lifetime.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill aims to stop anyone born after Jan. 1, 2009 (now aged 17) from taking up smoking.
Health minister Wes Streeting called this a “historic moment for the nation’s health” that will lead to the “first smoke-free generation, protected from a lifetime of addiction and harm”.
When it gets royal assent and becomes law, it will give the government powers to extend an indoor smoking ban to outdoor spaces such as children’s playgrounds and areas outside schools and hospitals.
It will also give the government new powers to restrict the flavours and packaging of vapes and ban vaping in places where smoking is already banned.
The bill is part of a drive to ramp up preventative health measures and ease long-term pressure on the U.K.’s state-funded National Health Service (NHS).
Hazel Cheeseman, director of public health charity Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), told LBC radio station that the bill was a “decisive turning point for public health”.
The Labour government in June last year introduced a ban on the sale of disposable vapes, which are cheap and come in colourful packaging that make them popular with young people.
New Zealand in 2022 became the first country to enact such a law against smoking, banning the sale of cigarettes to those born after 2008. But a newly elected conservative coalition repealed the law in November 2023, less than a year after it was introduced.
The Maldives in November last year banned the sale of cigarettes to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2007.
Smoking in England causes around 75,000 deaths per year and is responsible for around a quarter of all deaths, according to the NHS.
