Britain has an illegal tobacco problem. Our research found that 31 per cent of adults say they have been offered illegal tobacco, 85 per cent have heard of it and 82 per cent think not enough is being done to stop it.[1]
Nicky Small, Corporate Affairs and Communications Director, JTI UK
In the UK, legal duty-paid tobacco volumes have fallen by 52 per cent since 2021, on HMRC’s own figures[2]. Smoking rates have fallen too, but far more slowly. As shown in the Smoking Toolkit Study, tobacco smoking prevalence fell from 16.9 per cent in 2021 to 14.9 per cent in 2026, representing a 2 percentage point reduction, or an 11.8 per cent relative decline over the period.[3] Years of cuts to enforcement, alongside sharp rises in the tax on legal cigarettes, have turned Britain into a goldmine for the criminals running the illegal market. Legal sales are collapsing and the reason is simple: push the price of a legal pack high enough and many smokers do not quit, they go underground. Criminal sellers profit, while honest shopkeepers and the taxpayer pay the price.
Despite growing concern from retailers, enforcement agencies and policymakers, we remain in largely the same position as we were a year ago: debating the scale of the problem rather than agreeing what is needed to tackle it.
