Under 25s could be BANNED from buying cigarettes in bid to make UK smoke-free in less than a decade

A BAN on under 25s buying cigarettes could happen by 2030 in a bid to make the UK smoke-free.

Javed Khan is leading an independent review of the government’s ambition to make the country smoke-free by the end of the decade.

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A former chief executive of children's charity Barnardo's, Khan has been tasked with scrutinising whether national action on smoking is enough.

The new anti-smoking tsar said that if “nothing different is done” in the approach to cigarettes then this target would not be met, reports The Times.

Health secretary Sajid Javid commissioned the review and Khan is keen to question whether the target of 5 per cent smoking prevalence by 2030 was ambitious enough.

Khan is set to report his findings on April 22 and he believes a culture of thinking the "job is done" when tackling smoking rates had led to some avenues of help being neglected.

His review will target key groups including pregnant women, deprived communities and young people.

Mr Khan said that he and the government are "thinking seriously about the age of sale" after looking around the globe for inspiration.

For example, New Zealand has some of the strictest smoking laws and has introduce a progressive year-on-year age ban meaning anyone born after 2008 will not be able to buy cigarettes or tobacco products in their lifetime.

“Is that the right model? Is there [an argument] for raising the age to 19, 20, 21, or even 25?” Mr Khan said.

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Smoking among the 18-30 group in England shot up by 25 per cent during the first lockdown, the equivalent of 652,000 more young adults smoking compared with before the pandemic.

Experts say the rise was partially due to the stress of the pandemic, but raised concerns that it could be a trend.

Mr Khan's review is also looking at whether advertising campaigns on social media platforms used by young people, such as TikTok and Instagram, could be key to changing attitudes to smoking.

He said: “Just look at the Covid experience, mass marketing has a big effect, it really works.

"The government went hell for leather, it made an enormous difference in vaccination rates.

"So why not do something like that again, if we really want to save people’s lives."

Overall, smoking rates across the country have been falling steadily over the past 20 years and cigarette use dropped from 15.8 per cent in 2019 to 14.5 per cent in 2020, according to the Office for National Statistics.

However, there are still six million smokers in England. Tobacco remains the single largest cause of preventable death and 64,000 people died from conditions related to smoking in 2019.