Eighty per cent of UK smokers are buying tobacco products on which UK duty hasn’t been paid.
That’s the key finding from the Tobacco Manufacturers’ Association (TMA) Anti-Illicit Trade Survey 2023.
The figure is the highest recorded in the nine years the annual survey has been commissioned.
In Scotland, the number was slightly below the UK average at 79%, although this was a rise of 5% on the previous year.
The survey polled more than 12,000 smokers. It also found that one in five smokers only buy ‘branded’ tobacco, even though all legal tobacco has been sold in standardised plain packaging since 2016.
Almost two-thirds (65%) of respondents claimed repeated hikes in tobacco taxes, coupled with cost-of-living pressures, have changed where they buy tobacco from – a massive rise from the 39% recorded for 2022.
If anything, it’s surprising the figures aren’t higher given the disparity between legal and illegal prices. In January 2024, the average price for a 20-pack of legal cigarettes was £15.26 compared to between £3 and £6 for 20 on the black market. At the same time, the average price for 50g of legal Roll-Your-Own was £34.84 compared to between £5 and upwards of £8 for 50g of ‘illegal’ product.
Rupert Lewis, Director of the TMA, commented: “Repeated increases in tobacco taxes and ongoing cost-of-iving pressures are changing consumer behaviour and driving more smokers to buy illegal tobacco through criminal channels.”
Lewis also predicted that there would be profound and far-reaching repercussions for consumers, retailers, law enforcement agencies and communities because of the generational smoking ban.
He said: “In time, it will push the entire UK tobacco market underground, and I urge the Government to reflect hard on the consequences of this policy decision and the lasting impact that it will have on the UK.”
For a copy of the UK TMA Anti-Illicit Trade Survey 2023, contact info@the-tma.org.uk.
