Cigarette sales in the UK have decreased by about 20 million a month after plain packaging rules and tougher taxes were introduced three years ago, reports The Guardian.

According to the Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG), the number of cigarettes sold in the UK was falling by about 12 million a month before measures were introduced in May 2017. Prof Anna Gilmore, Director of TCRG, said: “The underlying rate of decline in tobacco sales almost doubled after these policies were implemented.”
After Australia, the UK was the second country in the world to implement plain packaging laws, despite suggestions from the tobacco industry that this would increase sales of smuggled cigarettes. But, according to the report, the decline in UK sales does not appear to have been offset by an increase in illicit tobacco, with HM Revenue & Customs reporting no increase over the period according to the TCRG study, which was published in the British Medical Journal publication Tobacco Control.
“Governments around the world considering plain packaging can be reassured that this policy works and that the real reason the industry opposes this legislation so vehemently is because it threatens its profitability,” said Gilmore.
The study, which was funded by Cancer Research UK and the British Heart Foundation, also found that net revenue for the tobacco industry fell by 13 per cent after implementation of the tougher policies, from GBP 231 million (USD 291.5 million) to GGBP 198 million (249.9 million) a month.
Simon Clark, Director of smokers’ lobby group Forest, disputed the findings, saying: “According to ONS figures, the smoking rate fell significantly more in the years before the introduction of plain packaging than in the period since. Smoking rates have been in decline for decades, regardless of measures like smoking bans or plain packaging, and it’s mostly to do with education or, more recently, smokers switching to e-cigarettes.”