Illicit Tobacco Partnership

The Illicit Tobacco Partnership is led by Fresh, the comprehensive tobacco control programme based in the North East of England in collaboration with our partners at ASH, SPECTRUM and the Greater Manchester Making Smoking History programme.

The Partnership is part of broader strategies aimed at reducing smoking prevalence, to protect communities from tobacco-related harm, and to stop more children and young people from starting to smoke in the first place.

The foundations of the Partnership began in 2006, with the recognition that the illicit tobacco trade was undermining the delivery of tobacco control efforts, particularly taxation and age of sale legislation.

In 2007, health and enforcement partners gathered in the North of England for a world-first summit on tackling the illicit tobacco trade which led to the launch of the North of England Tackling Illicit Tobacco for Better Health programme in 2009. The Illicit Tobacco Partnership was subsequently formed in 2016.

Our programmes recognise that all tobacco – legal and illegal – is harmful. Tobacco, and the smoke it generates when burnt, contains thousands of chemicals, many of which are known to cause cancer, heart disease, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and many other conditions. Smoking is the largest cause of cancer, causes one in five adult deaths over the age of 35, and is now widely recognised as killing up to two in every three long term smokers in our communities.

The problem

Tobacco use is the leading cause of preventable death and disease globally. In the UK, it leads to tens of thousands of avoidable deaths every year in England and causes many more people to lose years of active life through smoking-related illnesses.

What we do

To support our objectives, the Illicit Tobacco Partnership has brought together a series of resources which provides strategic advice and guidance to partners who wish to address the problems of illicit tobacco within broader tobacco control programmes of activity.

Recognition for our work

The successes of the Illicit Tobacco Partnership and its previous formations have been endorsed by a number of national and international bodies, all of which recognise the value of collaborative working to tackle the illegal tobacco trade:

All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health’s inquiry into the illegal trade in tobacco products
National Audit Office report on progress in tackling tobacco smuggling
Public Accounts Committee report on progress in tackling tobacco smuggling