§ Mr. Simsasked the Secretary of State for Social Services whether he has been able to reach agreement with retail organisations on guidelines to prevent illegal sale of cigarettes to children aged under 16 years.
§ Mr. John PattenI am pleased to report that agreement has been reached. This is very important because research carried out by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys last year showed that £60 million worth of cigarettes were being sold to children under 16. Many children admitted buying the cigarettes themselves from shops. I therefore approached the major retail organisations concerned to draw up guidelines to discourage illegal sale of cigarettes to children under 16. I am very grateful for the efforts and support of the retail bodies in drawing up the guidelines.
The guidelines stress the importance of making sure that sales staff know the law and do not sell cigarettes to anyone under 16 even if they are said to be for someone else. They advise prominent display of warning notices and proper supervision of cigarette vending machines. They also ask retailers to advise parents not to ask children to buy cigarettes on their behalf. We shall be looking to parents to support the aims of the guidelines by discouraging their own children from smoking. The retail organisations have agreed to distribute the guidelines to nearly 100,000 shops in Britain in the next few weeks. Copies of the guidelines have been placed in the Library.
This initiative continues the various measures the Government have taken to dissuade young people from smoking. Since the OPCS survey was published last September we have given £500,000 to the Health Education Council for a major publicity campaign in the 601W spring and have drawn attention to the problem through a leaflet to schools. I have also commissioned further research into what influences children to smoke. By the middle of next year we should have the results of a further OPCS survey of children's smoking habits. I am sure the guidelines together with the other steps I have outlined will help to dissuade young people from smoking.