Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I am grateful to noble Lords who spoke to Amendment No. 177A, which draws attention to the provisions on the sale of tobacco. The Government believe that more needs to be done to tackle the problem of underage smoking. Children still have far too easy access to cigarettes. In a recent survey, less than a quarter of 11 to 15 year-olds who tried to buy cigarettes from small shops found it difficult to do so. We need to do more to educate young children in this regard, but we also need to do more to encourage retailers to comply with the law on the age of sale and prevent the sale to children and young teenagers of a product which, as the Committee well knows, can cause lifetime addiction, disabling illness and, too often, premature death. That is why we have introduced Clause 194—to enable magistrates to impose orders on retailers prohibiting the sale of tobacco for up to one year for persistent flouting of the law and restricting the sale of tobacco to people under the minimum age of 18. These orders are intended only for the most serious cases, let me make that clear. There will need to be three proven instances of breaking the law before trading standards officers can apply for a banning order. At least one of these must be a conviction that supports the application for the order. That will mean, in practice, that such an order will affect only those retailers who repeatedly flout the law and have been proven to do so through failed test purchases supervised by trading standards officers. The point has rightly been made that the vast majority of small retailers are law abiding and perform a wonderful service for their local communities. Of course, it is for trading standards in the various local authorities to apply the law as they see fit. They are advised by their local authority body, LACORS, to do so with a light touch and not always to move to prosecution at the very first instance. That is why we intend that the noble Lord’s objective should be achieved in comprehensive guidance on how trading standards should respond to this particular wrong. Although my noble friend Lord Graham makes a point about differences in trading standards between different areas, we hope the guidance will be accepted by trading standards across the board, I hope the Committee will welcome the provision. Of course we recognise that noble Lords have a more than legitimate concern that it should be delivered fairly, particularly for small retailers. If a legitimate retailer has trained his staff not to sell tobacco to people under 18, he will have a legitimate interest in knowing whether a rogue member of staff has breached the law. We understand why the amendment has been tabled and why it proposes a notification requirement. We support the introduction of such a requirement but believe that it should be delivered through guidance and not in the Bill. The tobacco provisions will be subject to the guidelines for implementation which, as I said, will be drafted by the Local Authorities Coordinators of Regulatory Services in consultation with retailers.