UK set to ban tobacco sales for a ‘smoke-free’ generation. Will it work?

The UK’s smoking ban aims to phase out sales of tobacco, which is one of the main causes of cancer deaths in Britain.

A woman smokes in Trafalgar Square in central London [File: Toby Melville/Reuters]

Britain is set to impose tough measures to stub out smoking, which has emerged as one of the biggest causes of cancer deaths in the country.

Parliament approved the government’s “historic” plans to create a “smoke-free” generation on Tuesday in a bid to reduce the number of people dying from smoking-related diseases, a big burden on the country’s publicly funded National Health Service (NHS).