A pioneering programme to tackle the use of illicit tobacco in the North of England has had a positive impact and offers a blueprint for similar programmes both nationally and internationally, research by the UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies has shown.

‘Tackling Illicit Tobacco for Better Health’ is a pilot scheme which was launched in 2009 to improve the health of people in the North West, North East and Yorkshire and Humber by trying to reduce the supply of and demand for illegal cigarettes and tobacco.

Prior to the pilot programme, illegal tobacco was mainly the responsibility of Her Majesty’s Revenue & Customs (HMRC) which focused principally on tackling supply. The new scheme has been the first large-scale attempt to cut public use of black market tobacco using healthcare agencies as well as enforcement, groundbreaking social marketing campaigns and intelligence-generating initiatives.

The UK Centre for Tobacco Control Studies was commissioned to deliver a verdict on the impact of the programme using a multi-disciplinary research team from the Universities of Nottingham, Durham, Stirling, Northumbria and University College London.

Leading the evaluation, Professor Ann McNeill, said: “Our research shows that ‘Tackling Illicit Tobacco for Better Health’ has had a measurable effect on the problem in the North of England. It was the first programme to develop a comprehensive approach to tackling the demand for and the supply of illicit tobacco in communities through the development of partnerships between health and enforcement agencies. We have concluded that the scheme is an exemplar of partnership working and should now be widely disseminated. ”

Dr Andrew Russell, who led the ethnographic elements of the evaluation from Durham University, said: “Illicit tobacco was very much the ‘elephant in the room’ of tobacco control before the programme began. It was a big problem making the economic levers that might otherwise discourage people from smoking much less effective, thus adding to the weight of health inequalities and socio-economic disadvantage that smoking creates. Individual agencies working alone were finding the problem extremely hard to address. ‘Tackling Illicit Tobacco for Better Health’ has informed many more people than before about the true nature of the elephant and the social harm it is causing.”

Read the full UKCTCS report

The study found that the programme was associated with significant increases in intelligence reports and indications