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Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill

I would never want to be seen to speak up on behalf on anyone trying to sell tobacco to those who are under age, but I am a little confused over the amendment’s wording and I would be grateful for clarification on subsection (3). I note that the proposed offence is about buying or attempting, "““to buy tobacco on behalf of the individual aged under 18””." I hope that that has been deliberate in omitting cigarette papers because there is a very particular position for young people who play musical instruments. Cigarette papers are very useful for drying the keys of flutes, clarinets, saxophones and other woodwind instruments during a concert. Apparently, they dry them better than anything else, so musicians will often slip a cigarette paper in a damp key to it get to function better. I hope that parents and, indeed, music teachers would be able to buy cigarette papers for such purposes and would not be committing an offence because it is in the interests of children’s education. Although I do not want cigarettes sold in any way to young people—we know the danger for young people in starting smoking—if they acquire a criminal record they get labelled and stigmatised later on. I have some concerns about giving to a teenager who may be at an experimental stage a criminal record that sticks on their file for life. They have a record of an offence and I am concerned about the issues involved with joining a group of people who have a criminal record. There may be an unintended adverse consequence from a proposal that is designed to stop young people getting cigarettes.