asked Her Majesty's Government:

Whether they will make it an offence for adults to buy cigarettes on behalf of children under 18 years of age, in the same way as it is already a proxy purchase offence to buy alcoholic drinks to pass on to children. [HL650]

We are not considering an offence of proxy purchasing of tobacco. In practice, it would be extremely difficult to enforce and therefore be of limited value in the Government's efforts to reduce smoking among young people under the age of 18.