British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is considering introducing measures that would ban the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes, The Guardian reported, citing government sources.
Sunak is looking at anti-smoking measures similar to laws New Zealand announced last year, which include a ban on selling tobacco to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009, the report said.
"We want to encourage more people to quit and meet our ambition to be smokefree by 2030, which is why we have already taken steps to reduce smoking rates," a British government spokesperson said in an emailed response to Reuters.
Those measures include free vape kits, a voucher scheme to incentivise pregnant women to quit, and consulting on mandatory cigarette pack inserts, the spokesperson added.
The spokesperson declined to comment further on The Guardian report.
Consumer-Focused Drive
The policies under consideration are part of a new consumer-focused drive from Sunak's team before next year's expected election, the report said.
Britain in May announced it would close a loophole that let retailers give free samples of vapes to children in a clampdown on e-cigarettes.
Separately, councils in England and Wales in July called on the government to ban the sale of single-use vapes by 2024 on both environmental and health grounds.
In May of this year, Australia banned recreational vaping and tightened other aspects of e-cigarette laws in the biggest crackdown on the tobacco industry in more than a decade to try to stop a rise in teenage vaping.
The Australian government aims to ban all disposable vapes, which often comes in fruity flavours, ban the import of non-prescription vapes and limit nicotine levels, aiming for the sale of vapes to be confined to helping smokers quit.
