Prosecutions under the Tobacco Products Directive: FOI release

Information requested

A copy of the data for the current amount of Trading Standard officers, Police Officers, Court Officials and Tobacco Enforcement Officers from 2013 to 2023, as well as the number of how many successful prosecutions there has been in the last five years since the Tobacco Products Directives came into force in May 2016.

You submitted a separate request, reference 202400405086 which asked for the identical information with the exception of, “the number of how many successful prosecutions there has been in the last five years since the Tobacco Products Directives came into force in May 2016 for Scotland alone.” As such we assume that this request is for UK data rather than Scotland alone. We have treated both requests separately however the content of our response is almost identical.

Response

Some of the information you have requested is available from https://www.gov.scot/collections/policeofficer-quarterly-strength-statistics-scotland/ which provides police officer number from 2019 to 2023. Police officer numbers from 2013 to 2019 are available from
https://webarchive.nrscotland.gov.uk/20200114065713/https:/www2.gov.scot/Topics/Statistics/Browse/Crime-Justice/PublicationPoliceStrength.

Under section 25(1) of FOISA, we do not have to give you information which is already reasonably accessible to you. If, however, you do not have internet access to obtain this information from the website(s) listed, then please contact me again and I will send you a paper copy.

Prosecutions under the Tobacco Products Directives

Prosecutions would not have been made under the Directive itself but under the domestic implementation of the directive. The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 implemented some aspects of the Directive for the UK – there are other aspects which were implemented via the Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products (SPOT) Regulations 2015, the Electronic Cigarettes etc (Fees) Regulations 2016, and the Tobacco Products (Traceability and Security Features) Regulations 2019.

The Scottish Government publishes figures on people prosecuted and convicted in Scottish criminal courts in the Criminal Proceedings in Scotland statistical bulletin. The most recent version covers the ten financial years from 2012-13 to 2021-22. In that time there have been no people with a main charge under The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 prosecuted or convicted in Scottish courts. However, one person in a single case concluded in 2019-20 had five auxiliary charges under the act prosecuted, with all five charges resulting in a conviction. The five charges all fell under Regulation 48(D).

Up until 2021-22 there are no successful prosecutions under the Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products (SPOT) Regulations 2015, the Electronic Cigarettes etc (Fees) Regulations 2016, and the Tobacco Products (Traceability and Security Features) Regulations 2019.

While our aim is to provide information whenever possible, in this instance the Scottish Government does not have some of the information you have requested. The reasons why we don’t have the information are explained in the Annex to this letter.

This is a formal notice under section 17(1) of FOISA that the Scottish Government does not have the information you have requested.

About FOI

The Scottish Government is committed to publishing all information released in response to Freedom of Information requests. View all FOI responses at http://www.gov.scot/foi-responses.

FOI 202400404844 - Information released - Annex

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1 page PDF

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70.3 kB