Anti-smoking tsar Javed Khan has proposed a scheme that could see under 25s banned from buying cigarettes across the United Kingdom, reports The Sun.

Javed Khan has been tasked with leading an independent review of the government’s approach to making the UK smoke-free in less than a decade and to determine whether enough is being done to meet this goal. Khan, who is a former chief executive of children’s charity Barnardo’s, said that if “nothing different is done” in the approach to cigarettes, the smoke-free target would not be met, reports The Sun.
The review that will include target key groups such as young people and pregnant women was commissioned by health secretary Sajid Javid and Kahn is due to report his findings on 22 April. Given that smoking amongst people aged 18 to 30 had gone up by 25 per cent during the first lockdown, Khan said that there were serious grounds for considering upping the age of sale, according to The Sun. The review will also investigate the effects of advertising campaigns particularly on social media which Khan thinks could be a useful tool in changing young peoples’ attitude to smoking.
“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," he said.