Tobacco Retailer Licensing – why it must be stopped

Just about everything you buy is regulated in one way or another. The European Union spews out regulations, directives, decisions, recommendations, and opinions every week. Civil servants in Whitehall are also notorious for gold plating everything that emanates from Brussels, and in the process add huge costs to businesses small and large in the UK. Big businesses, of course, are better placed to cope with increased costs; smaller businesses, however, are not in that position. Therefore, governments of all colours and persuasions should think long and hard before they increase regulatory burdens on those businesses that are the lifeblood of the British economy.

What the Chancellor of the Exchequer didn’t announce in his Autumn Statement last year was a consultation on tobacco retailer licensing. It was there, though, buried away in all the paperwork, just not announced in the House of Commons, and so therefore didn’t receive the attention it should have done.

In a nutshell, if any retailer wants to sell tobacco, they must first be licensed. Instead of the free market, the Government wants to pick and choose where a smoker can or cannot buy a packet of cigarettes.

So what has prompted the Government to act in this way? In five words: Action on Smoking and Health – or ASH, as it is commonly known. This is a taxpayer funded pressure group that realises it is not going to be able to ban smoking completely, but does everything it can to make the lives of smokers as difficult as possible.

ASH doesn’t want shops near schools selling tobacco; it wants to restrict the number of outlets selling tobacco in densely populated areas; it wants to restrict the types of shops that are legally permitted to sell tobacco. It wants, through regulation, to close down as many tobacco retailers as it can, thinking that the net result will be fewer smokers.

It is already illegal to sell tobacco to anyone under the age of 18 years. If your local corner shop is found to have broken the law, the owner faces a fine of up to £2,500. No-one in their right mind is going to sell a packet of cigarettes to anyone who remotely looks too young. Even if a child has the money for a packet of fags in their pocket, the probability is extremely high that they are not going to get their hands on a packet from a shopkeeper on their way to school.

Cigarettes are also not on display in any shop in the country. You have to instead read a list of products sold, ask for what you want by name, and then the person serving you will have to open the display, take out what you asked for, and then close the display immediately. If they leave it open, so we can all see what is being sold, they are breaking the law.

Small shopkeepers are already struggling. The last thing they need is increased regulation and licensing costs. They simply cannot afford them. They could go to the wall as a result.

This is what James Lowman, Chief Executive of the Association for Convenience Stores had to say:

“Licensing systems load costs and administrative burdens on retailers, and the registration scheme adopted in Scotland has not been effective in tackling the illicit tobacco trade. We will be responding to the consultation calling on HMRC and enforcement agencies to use the existing resources and penalties to tackle the illicit trade.”

And it is the illicit trade that has the most to benefit. If the Government severely restricts the sale of a legal product for which there is market demand, the black market will always flourish. Even a Government as opposed to personal freedom as this one must realise that.

Nigel Evans is the Conservative MP for Ribble Valley. Before being elected to Parliament he worked as a newsagent, so he knows what he’s talking about, and will lead a campaign against tobacco retailer licensing. We in The Freedom Association will happily support him.

Tobacco retailer licensing, if implemented, will force more small businesses to close. The main beneficiaries will be criminal gangs making a fortune on the black market.