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Law & Policy Guide

The ASH guide to laws, policies and agreements applying to tobacco and related products in England.

This is a guide to laws, policies and agreements that apply to tobacco and related products in England, only some of which are UK-wide. Health is devolved to the individual nations of the UK, but other policies, like excise taxes, are UK-wide, or apply only to parts of the UK. The territorial extent is specified with links provided to devolved nations laws and policies where applicable.

The UK has international commitments as a signatory and party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and Illicit Trade Protocol to the Convention. These are set out in the international section below, which also includes EU policies which provided a foundation for many of our tobacco laws and policies to date, with minor revision since the UK exited the EU. Northern Ireland remains subject to EU legislation.

UK Crown Dependencies and Overseas Territories have their own tobacco policies and laws. For more information about these see: