Will the smoking ban be subject to a ‘nanny state’ backlash?
As smoking has been increasingly curtailed in public, it’s easy to forget that it’s still one of the leading causes of death and illness in the UK.
It kills around half of those who smoke, making it the biggest one that’s entirely preventable. The habit kills 76,000 people a year, according to the NHS.
Rishi Sunak has backed some radical steps, including a lifetime ban on ban on smoking cigarettes for those currently aged under 15 – to be achieved by raising the legal smoking age by a year, every year.
Under the plans, those born after Jan 2009 would never be allowed to buy them.
And now we can add a proposed ban on disposable vapes, which with their colourful branding and low-price tag, are blamed for driving a nine-fold surge in teenage smoking in just two years.
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‘Vaping is a ‘ticking time bomb’ among children (Oct 2023)
From a public health perspective, it’s being hailed as a game-changer, and the vaping ban will reassure the message boards full of worried parents of teenagers.
But there’s still something about the ban on cigarettes altogether, that sits uneasily, particularly with politicians on the right.
Boris Johnson recently slammed the idea of the gradual smoking ban as “barmy” and unworkable, claiming it would “criminalise yet another variety of ordinary behaviour”.
Free marketeer Liz Truss – who warned her party against “banning things” – tonight says protecting children is one thing, but “adults must be able to make their own choices about their own lives.”
“A Conservative government should not be seeking to extend the nanny state”, she said.
(File pic)
Two disgruntled enemies of the prime minister, perhaps. But this week reports emerged that other libertarian Tory MPs are urging him to replace the ban with a rise in the smoking age to 21.
They are concerned it is a “sideshow”, and the policy of age discrimination – which as this generation get holder, would require adults to show ID to buy tobacco – would cause confusion.
When these proposals come before parliament, they will likely get Labour support – but Sunak will want to limit any rebellion on his own side.
All anti-smoking measures – from the ban on smoking indoors in the UK in 2007, to plain packaging and a ban on smoking in cars with children – had their detractors, who said they were illiberal and unworkable. But in the end, they were approved comfortably by MPs.
Vapes won’t be the controversial bit. Banning disposable vapes, on both health and environmental grounds is spreading.
According to the World Health Organisation 34 countries have banned them – including Brazil, India and Norway – although various degrees of success, and 87 have introduced restrictions.
The gradual smoking ban is trickier in terms of enforcement. The proposals were inspired by pioneering new laws passed in New Zealand, which its new government has now decided to scrap.
The prime minister responded that he’d thought long and hard about the ban and will go it alone.
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Does vaping impact your health?
As Tory MPs took in the news, first announced at the Conservative party conference last October, it came as a surprise to those who noted that he delayed a ban on buy-one-get-one free junk foods just months earlier – claiming it interfered with people’s “right to choose” on a tight budget.
The difference with smoking, he said, was that – unlike other vices – there is no safe level for it.
Health experts warn that smoking is associated with poverty, and a ban would need to be backed by other measures including support to stop smoking, for which local government budgets are limited.
Whether these smoking measures are judged to be workable could be the test for whether ministers have, most likely after the election, a fresh look at restrictions in other difficult areas.
UK
Pictured: Boy killed in Gateshead industrial estate fire – 14 children arrested on suspicion of manslaughter
Tributes have been paid to 14-year-old Layton Carr who died in a fire at an industrial estate.
Eleven boys and three girls, aged between 11 and 14 years, have been arrested on suspicion of manslaughter after the incident in Gateshead on Friday. They remain in police custody.
Police were alerted to a fire at Fairfield industrial park in the Bill Quay area
Firefighters raced to Fairfield industrial park in the Bill Quay area shortly after 8pm, putting out the blaze a short time later.
Police then issued an appeal for a missing boy, Layton Carr, who was believed to be in the area at the time.
In a statement, the force said that “sadly, following searches, a body believed to be that of 14-year-old Layton Carr was located deceased inside the building”.
Layton’s next of kin have been informed and are being supported by specialist officers, police added.
Layton has been described as a ‘beautiful soul’
A fundraising page on GoFundMe has been set up to help Layton’s mother pay for funeral costs.
Organiser Stephanie Simpson said: “The last thing Georgia needs to stress trying to pay for a funeral for her Boy Any donations will help thank you.”
One tribute in a Facebook post read: “Can’t believe I’m writing this my nephew RIP Layton 💔 forever 14 you’ll be a massive miss, thinking of my sister and 2 beautiful nieces right now.”
Another added: “My boy ❤️ my baby cousin, my Layton. Nothing will ever come close to the pain I feel right now. Forever 14. I’ll miss you sausage.”
A third said: “Rest in peace big lad such a beautiful soul taken far to soon my thoughts are with you Gee stay strong girl hear for u always.”
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Detective Chief Inspector Louise Jenkins, of Northumbria Police, also said: “This is an extremely tragic incident where a boy has sadly lost his life.”
She added that the force’s “thoughts are with Layton’s family as they begin to attempt to process the loss of their loved one”.
They are working to establish “the full circumstances surrounding the incident” and officers will be in the area to “offer reassurance to the public”, she added.
A cordon remains in place at the site while police carry out enquiries.
Sky News can reveal that the government has rowed back on a national compensation scheme for victims of child sexual abuse, despite it being promised under the previous Conservative administration.
Warning – this story contains references to sexual and physical abuse
A National Redress Scheme was one of 20 key recommendations made by the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA), but a Home Office report reveals the government has scrapped it because of the cost.
Marie, who is 71, suffered alleged sexual, physical, and emotional abuse at Greenfield House Convent in St Helens, Merseyside, between 1959 and 1962, and is still fighting for compensation.
Greenfield House Convent, where Marie says she was abused
As soon as she arrived as a six-year-old, Marie says her hair was cut off, her name changed, and she experienced regular beatings from the nuns and students.
She claims a nun instigated the violence, including when Marie was held down so that her legs were “spread-eagled” as she was sexually abused with a coat hanger.
Merseyside Police investigated claims of abuse at the convent, but in 2016, a suspect died before charges could be brought.
Marie has received an apology from the Catholic body that ran the home; she tried to sue them, but her claim was rejected because it was filed too long after the alleged abuse.
Marie, 71, is still fighting for compensation for the abuse she says she suffered as a child
In February, ministers said the law would change for victims of sexual abuse trying to sue institutions for damages, which was a recommendation from the IICSA.
Previously, people had to make a civil claim before they were 21, unless the victim could prove a fair trial could proceed despite the time lapse.
Campaigners argued for the time limit to be removed as, on average, victims wait 26 years to come forward. Changes to the 1980 Limitation Act could lead to more people making claims.
Peter Garsden, President of The Association of Child Abuse Lawyers
Civil cases ‘can take three to five years’
But Peter Garsden, president of the Association of Child Abuse Lawyers, worries that when it comes to historical abuse where the defendant is dead, institutions will still argue that it is impossible to have a fair trial and will fight to have the case thrown out of court.
Mr Garsden said it takes “between three and five years” for a civil case to get to trial.
He warned that claimants “can end up losing if you go through that process. Whereas the Redress Scheme would be quicker, much more straightforward, and much more likely to give justice to the victims”.
Victim awarded £10 compensation
Jimbo, who was a victim of abuse at St Aidan’s children’s home in Cheshire, took his case to the High Court twice and the Court of Appeal three times, but, after 13 years, all he ended up with was £10 for his bus fare to court.
Despite the Lord Justice of Appeal saying he believed that the abuse had occurred, Jimbo lost his claim because of the time limit for child sexual abuse claims to be made.
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Neither Marie nor Jimbo is likely to benefit from the removal of the time limit for personal injury claims, which is why Mr Garsden is calling on the government to implement a National Redress Scheme for victims of sexual abuse, as recommended by the IICSA.
Hundreds of millions paid to victims
The governments in Scotland and Northern Ireland have set up compensation schemes and paid hundreds of millions of pounds to victims.
In 2023, the then Conservative government said a similar scheme would be organised for England and Wales.
But the Home Office admitted in its Tackling Child Sexual Abuse: Progress Update that it “is not currently taking forward any further steps on the IICSA proposal for a separate, national financial redress scheme for all survivors of child sexual abuse”.
“In the current fiscal environment, this recommendation is very difficult to take forward,” it added.
For victims, the scheme was the last chance of compensation for a lifetime blighted by abuse.
“The money is about justice and about all the other people who have had to suffer this abuse,” Marie said.
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