Tobacco ban attacked by expert

Similar move in Canada led to shops closing and jobs being lost, says store boss

By Tim Pauling

Published:

Scottish Government plans to ban the display of tobacco products beside cash registers have been attacked by an international trade expert.

Ministers claimed smoking among youngsters fell after the display of tobacco products was made illegal in Canada.

The Canadian Convenience Stores Association says the evidence does not back the assertion.

It also claimed the ban put numerous small shops out of business, raising the spectre of a similar scenario in Scotland.

The government said smoking among youths fell by 32% between the introduction of the tobacco display ban in Canada in 2002 and 2007.

The ban was only implemented in two provinces however, where youth smoking fell by only 18.5%, far lower than the national rate of decline.

The association said 23 corner shops closed every week in Ontario and 12 in Quebec after the display ban.

Association president Dave Bryans said: “This new evidence shows the dire effect a ban on tobacco displays has had on corner shops in Canada. It is inevitable that the same move by the Scottish government to ban displays will have a similar detrimental effect on the livelihood of retailers across Scotland.”

He added: “The purpose of the legislation in Canada, as it is now in Scotland, was to reduce youth smoking rates.

“Yet youth smoking rates in Canada have remained flat since 2006. So retailers have lost their jobs and their livelihoods for nothing.

“MSPs need to look at all the data, not just the selective statistics which some groups have highlighted.”

The Centre for Economic and Business Research found if UK shops were forced to hide tobacco products away, 2,600 stores would cease to be profitable, causing a potential loss of 8,000 jobs.

The Tobacco Retailers Alliance said the government had to heed the Canadian research and the decision by the New Zealand Government to lift its display ban.

Anti-smoking group Ash Scotland said the figures contained no comparisons to other areas, or numbers on shops that had opened or moved.

Chief executive Sheila Duffy said: “The tobacco industry is obviously desperate to keep promotional displays as this, and the branding on their packs, is their main way of advertising their harmful and addictive products.

“They are doing all they can to prevent measures that will stop young people starting to smoke and provide misleading and inaccurate information to do so.”

Mid Scotland and Fife Tory MSP Murdo Fraser said the Canadian figures contradicted the “spin” of Public Health Minister Shona Robison. “The proposed ban is mis- guided gesture politics at its worst and will come at the cost of jobs and local shops in communities,” he said.

West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine Liberal Democrat MSP Mike Rumbles said: “It’s all very well ministers bringing forward these measures, but they must also bring forward practical ways of helping our small businesses.”