Labour ministers are very keen to be good Europeans. But could the cause of closer continental ties come at the price of Wes Streeting’s smoking ban? Tobacco firms are perplexed as to how proposals to ban tobacco products for younger Brits will work in Northern Ireland. Under the terms of the UK’s revised Withdrawal Agreement, EU law continues to apply in certain respects here. Among the provisions of EU law is the snappily-named TPD2 – the EU’s second Tobacco Products Directive.

This was implemented in the UK in 2016 and continues to apply now to Northern Ireland. Under the UK’s post-Brexit deal, Article 4 obliges the government to give the same effect to provisions of EU law which are made applicable by the Withdrawal Agreement as they have in EU member states. Under TPD2, ‘Member States may not… prohibit or restrict the placing on the market of tobacco or related products which comply with this Directive.’

Tobacco firms are concerned that a generational smoking ban is thus incompatible with TPD2, by being a restriction on the placing of tobacco products on the market. They note that plans for generational bans in Denmark and Ireland were ditched in 2022 and 2024 respectively, with both national governments blaming TPD2 for the decision. Indeed, in May, the Irish government issued a press release suggesting that:

[P]reliminary legal advice suggests Ireland cannot pursue a ‘smokefree generation’ policy as has been suggested in other jurisdictions due to the EU’s Single Market rules and Tobacco Products Directive.

So, has Streeting’s Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) got a plan to deal with the Northern Ireland issue? Mr S asked the DHSC for their solution – yet answer came there none. The newly-published Tobacco and Vapes Bill does nothing to clarify Northern Ireland’s compatibility in its 190 pages either.

Let’s hope they come up with something sharpish…