Tobacco Sales to Under-18s to Stop

11.04.00pm BST (GMT +0100) Thu 18th Oct 2007

Retailers are being offered free signs and information packs about the new laws banning under-18s from buying cigarettes and knives.

The information packs are available from Milton Keynes Council's trading standards department to help retailers comply with the law that has raised the legal age from 16 to 18 for the sale of cigarettes and knives. Any retailer who needs help or advice is being urged to contact trading standards so they can implement the new law, which came into force on 1st October.

According to a Department of Health document, the change in the law will eventually save 1,700 lives a year through reduced smoking rates and cut smoking among under-16s by 14 per cent.

All retailers selling knives or tobacco will need to display a statutory sign or risk a fine of £1,000.

The maximum penalty for selling tobacco products to those under age remains the same at £2,000 for tobacco. Selling knives to those under age carries a penalty of £5,000 or six months jail.

Liberal Democrat councillor Douglas McCall, cabinet member for the environment, said: "The Council wants to do what it can to help retailers enforce the new law and to protect young people from the harm caused by smoking."