Local authority leaders have urged MPs to back the Government’s plans to ban smoking and restrict the use of vapes.
Parliament will today vote on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which aims to ensure anyone turning 15 from this year would be banned from buying cigarettes.
Tobacco kills two-thirds of long-term users and causes 80,000 deaths every year.
The Government’s bill, which has been criticised by some Tory MPs as unenforceable, also aims to make vapes less appealing to children.
Commenting ahead of today’s vote, Cllr David Fothergill, chairman of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Community Wellbeing Board said that councils are ‘fully supportive’ of the ambition to ban smoking.
He said: ‘Smoking remains one of the leading causes of preventable ill health, disability, and death in England. This creates additional pressures on our health and care systems and affects the quality of life for some in our local communities.
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