§ Mr. Home Robertsonasked the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry, what information he has on the number of cigarettes, cigars and individual packets of other tobacco products which have been sold through retail outlets in Great Britain in each of the last 10 years; and if he will estimate what proportion of those sales may have been made to young people under the age of 16 years.
§ Mr. Butcher[pursuant to his reply, 13 December 1985]: I regret that detailed information on the quantity of sales through retail outlets, including estimates of the proportion of sales to young people under the age of 16 years, is not available. However, Customs and Excise statistics of the quantities released for consumption are as follows, and some information on the incidence of smoking by young people is given in the recent survey by the Office of Population Censuses and Surveys on "Smoking among secondary school children in 1984", a copy of which is in the Library.
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Quantities Released for Consumption‡ Cigarettes (millions) Cigars* (tonnes) Other tobacco† (tonnes) 1977 124,923 3,410 12,689 1978 125,686 3,410 10,399 1979 124,524 3,264 9,697 1980 121,975 3,181 9,482 1981 109,822 2,874 9,769 1982 102,449 2,695 9,580 1983 102,611 2,654 9,093 1984 99,864 2,540 8,492 Notes * Information on the number of cigars released is not collected. † This includes hand-rolling tobacco and other smoking and chewing tobaco. ‡ Covers both home manufactured and imported tobacco products. Data in the above form for 1976 and earlier years are not readily available.