Move to increase age cigarettes can be sold

Currently the legal age to buy tobacco products in Guernsey is 18

A proposal to increase the age cigarettes can be sold to people in Guernsey has been put forward.

Deputies Peter Roffey and Lindsay de Sausmarez want Health and Social Care (HSC) to investigate increasing it from 18.

It follows a move in the UK to ban the sale of tobacco products to anyone born after 2009.

If approved, HSC would have to report back to the States before the end of 2025.

Guernsey 'behind the curve'

The amendment to HSC's proposal's to ban smoking in cars with children will be debated by the States later this month.

Mrs de Sausmarez said: "We're not criminalising smoking but looking at whether the age at which people can be sold tobacco products should be increased."

She urged States members to approve the move as she believed it would lead to savings on the island's public health budget.

She said: "We know most people who are smokers develop the habit at a young age, so reducing the availability of tobacco to young people is likely to reduce the prevalence of tobacco in the community.

"That's got benefits, not just to those individuals who can avoid addiction and the costs associated with smoking, not to mention the other dis-benefits of smoking."

The proposal from the two politician states: "It is unusual for people to take up smoking for the first time at a mature age.

"Therefore reducing smoking amongst the young would be of great benefit in further reducing the overall prevalence of smoking in Guernsey.

"While making it illegal to sell tobacco to young adults would not necessarily stop them accessing the drug, it would probably make it less readily availability to this age group."

Lucy Cave believes Guernsey has slipped behind other countries on tobacco legislation.

The proposal has been welcomed by Guernsey's Health Improvement Commission.

But tobacco harm reduction officer Lucy Cave said the island had fallen behind other countries when it came to laws to stop smoking.

"We were leading the way with tobacco legislation, with Aurigny being the first airline in the world to ban smoking on all of its flights, the ban on smoking in indoor work places.

"Unfortunately, as the years have progressed, the progress has slowed and now we are a bit behind the curve."