How is the smoking ban in café gardens enforced?

In January I considered how local authorities would enforce the ban on the sale of tobacco to anyone born after 1 January 2009. With some difficulty – and without recruiting a new army of Trading Standards officers. Under Section 7 of the Health Act 2006, smoking in a “smoke-free area” – such as a pub – is already a criminal offence. So I assume that in future this will also apply to smoking (or vaping?) in a pub garden. But if you see someone smoking and dial 999, don’t expect the rozzers to take action. The people you should turn to are the Trading Standards officers at your local town hall.

Even before these further laws are imposed, with their increasing workload for Trading Standards officers, the illegal cigarette market is flourishing. I have seen Freedom of Information data obtained from local authorities, which shows that 20 per cent reported record seizures in 2023, as enforcement officers struggle to deal with a exploding illegal market across England. One in nine local authorities that responded to the FOI request reported that they had just one Trading Standards officer. So such seizures are likely to be a fraction of what is sold. Still, the figures give some idea of ​​the booming illegal trade:

• Derby City Council. 1.38 million illegal cigarettes seized. That equates to 5,498 seized per working day or 12.38 illegal cigarettes per working minute.
• Havering Council. 58,000 illegal cigarettes seized. That works out at 231 seized every working day, or one illegal cigarette every two minutes.
• Derbyshire County Council. 55,120 illegal cigarettes seized. That’s the equivalent of over 219 cigarettes per working day or almost one illegal cigarette every two minutes.
• Wolverhampton City Council: 25,560 illegal cigarettes seized, equating to over 101 cigarettes per working day or almost one illegal cigarette every four minutes.
• Barnsley Borough Council, 24,040 illegal cigarettes seized. That equates to more than 95 cigarettes per working day or one illegal cigarette every five minutes.

Seizures of illegal tobacco are just one part of an agent’s role. In addition to ensuring that traders comply with the law regarding counterfeit goods, they must also do the same for product labeling, sales to minors, consumer safety, and animal welfare, among other things.

Polling by Charlesbye Strategy also shows that beleaguered law enforcement officers are threatened by an illegal market set to explode under Labour’s proposed tobacco controls. More than half of smokers (53 per cent) say any ban on tobacco would drive them to the black market. More than half of people in the UK (52 per cent) said they were concerned that the introduction of a generational smoking ban would lead to an increase in illegal cigarettes on the black market in the UK. More than half of the public think it is inappropriate for police to spend time and resources enforcing a ban.

Experts from Australia, which has even stricter tobacco and vaping regulations than the UK, have warned that a brutal crime wave is headed for British shores under Labor’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill. Rohan Pike, a former Australian Federal Police (AFP) and Australian Border Force (ABF) officer who helped set up the original tobacco strike team, outlines a number of violent consequences of their ban, which could affect not only shopkeepers but also pub owners:

“Fire bombings, murders and armed robberies of tobacco shops that began about 13 months ago are the result of the criminal market created by our wrong tobacco policies of the past 20 years.

“Australia’s tobacco policy is being driven by Department of Health officials who have no understanding of the criminal implications of their policies. There is a huge gap between their public health ideals and the reality of law enforcement. It’s been coming for decades, but it’s reached epidemic proportions in the last five to ten years and it’s getting worse. Australia has never had a national plan for illicit tobacco and this lack of organisation has meant that there’s never been any enforcement at the retail level.”

Pike outlines what the British government should think about, based on the mistakes made in Australia:

“If your proposed regulations are to be successful, you must make a huge investment in your enforcement agencies. You must also have the buy-in of local and state law enforcement agencies to address the associated organized crime elements. All of this requires careful planning, investment, and willpower.

“We all know about the ‘prohibition’ policies on alcohol in the US in the 1920s and how they spawned organized crime and were eventually repealed. The same type of puritanical zealotry is behind today’s public health advocates pushing to ban tobacco products.”

To add to the confusion over the proposed new restrictions, we have the issue of pubs and cafes with outdoor pavement seating. One of the few aspects of liberalisation during the pandemic was to make this easier. At the time, Labour supported a ban on smoking in these places, but a compromise left it up to local authorities whether they wanted to impose such restrictions. Only a handful – including Manchester and Newcastle – chose to do so. The vast majority came to the sensible conclusion that they already had enough rules to enforce. Now that obligation is being imposed on local authorities – with no indication of additional funding to pay for the staff needed to enforce them.

No doubt honest pub owners will do their best to enforce the law, however unfair and damaging they may find it. Others may turn a blind eye, so there will be a loss of business as smokers flock to pub gardens where the ban is ignored. Perhaps that will be followed by malicious complaints, with disgruntled staff and competitors sending snaps from their iPhones. So much for the Prime Minister’s promise to “take a lighter approach to our lives”.

Smoking is unpopular. So anti-smoking measures will be passed on impulse – until the implications are considered. The poll above gives an idea of ​​that. Smokers are now a fairly small minority. So are libertarians. Fewer people go to pubs – but most of us would be sad to see even more of them close. But how many people really want a law that is unenforceable and gives a boost to criminal gangs? No matter how pious ministers sound at the moment, they will be judged on results.

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