The proportion of smokers who have bought duty-free tobacco in England has tripled since 2019, rising from just over 5 per cent to more than 16 per cent, reports The Independent.

The findings are “worrying,” according to the authors of the study, published online in the journal Tobacco Control, because those who used cheap tobacco were less likely to quit.
From 2002 to 2014, between 12 per cent and 20 per cent of UK adult smokers said their last tobacco purchase had been from a low or untaxed source. Smokers who buy their tobacco from low or untaxed sources, and those who switch to cheaper products, are less likely to try to quit smoking than those who continue to pay the full price, the report said.

The study aimed to find out if “significant” social and economic changes in England prompted by Brexit rule changes on allowable tobacco purchases for personal use, the social and travel restrictions imposed by the pandemic, and the cost-of-living crisis, had affected buying habits.

Researchers examined data from 11,232 adults who had smoked in the past year and analysed changes between February 2019 – a year before the UK formally left the European Union – and October 2022.
The responses showed that the proportion of respondents who reported buying duty-free tobacco products increeased from just over 5 per cent in February 2019 to just over 16 per cent in October 2022.
The proportion of respondents who said they had bought on the black market did not change significantly, rising from just over 9 per cent to just over 14 per cent between February 2019 and November 2020, then falling back to 8.5 per cent by October 2022.