Accredited official statistics

Tobacco statistics commentary January 2026

Updated 27 February 2026

1. Headline statistics

The latest headlines for Tobacco Duty statistics are:

• this edition includes tobacco receipts data from August 2025 to January 2026, which are £414 million (10%) lower than the same period a year earlier

• provisional financial year-to-date tobacco receipts (for April 2025 to January 2026) are £6,528 million, which is £253 million (4%) lower than the same period a year earlier (April 2024 to January 2025); driven by cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco (down 4% and 5% respectively)

2. About this release

This publication provides Accredited Official Statistics (formerly known as National Statistics) on Tobacco Duty, which covers duty on cigarettes, cigars, hand rolling tobacco, and other types of tobacco such as pipe and chewing tobacco. More information on Accredited Official Statistics (formerly known as National Statistics).

The statistics in this release are based on data from recent and historic trader returns up to January 2026. Detailed statistics on clearances and receipts are provided in the accompanying tables.

In practice, Tobacco Duty is paid under duty deferment arrangements, whereby liability accrued during one calendar month is paid in duty to HMRC the following month. Therefore, the monthly receipts statistics covered in this publication relate to tobacco products cleared in the previous month.

3. Tobacco Duty

Tobacco Duty is a tax payable on tobacco products manufactured in the UK or imported into the UK.

Manufacturers must make a return to HMRC on any day when tobacco products are released onto the UK market unless the manufacturer has an agreement with HMRC to defer duty, in which case a return can be made on a monthly basis.

Changes to Tobacco Products Duty are announced in the fiscal announcement each year. Clearances are usually high in months immediately preceding the fiscal announcement due to tobacco manufacturers forestalling against duty increases.

Further information can be accessed at Tobacco Products Duty and a statistical background is available in the accompanying Tobacco statistics background and references document. Current Tobacco Duty rates can be accessed at Tobacco Products Duty rates.

4. Monthly total tobacco receipts

Monthly total tobacco cash receipts are calculated by summing the receipts from a variety of different cigarette types and other tobacco products. This, aalong with changes to duty rates across tobacco products and forestalling prior to government budgets or the tobacco manufacturers’ own price rises, mean that monthly total receipts have been volatile over the last few years.

Figure 1: Total monthly tobacco cash receipts for the current and previous 2 financial years

For the full dataset that accompanies Figure 1 go to Tobacco statistics tables (January 2026)

Figure 1 demonstrates several trends for total Tobacco Duty receipts:

• total tobacco receipts for the latest quarter (October 2025 to December 2025) are £1,884 million, £18 million (1%) lower than the same period in the previous financial year

• despite strong performance in the first quarter of the 2025 to 2026 financial year, tobacco receipts in both the second and third quarter have been lower than the same quarters in the previous two financial years

5. Tobacco receipts by product type

Figure 2: Total tobacco receipts for the last 10 financial years split by cigarettes, hand-rolling tobacco, cigars and other

For the full dataset that accompanies Figure 2 go to Tobacco statistics tables (January 2026)

Figure 2 demonstrates several trends for total tobacco receipts by product type:

• total tobacco receipts peaked in the 2021 to 2022 financial year

• cigarettes have been gradually decreasing as a proportion of total tobacco receipts, with HRT increasing

• cigar receipts and other tobacco products remain a small percentage of total tobacco receipts

Figure 3: Cigarette and Hand-Rolling Tobacco yearly tobacco receipts for the previous 10 financial years

For the full dataset that accompanies Figure 3 go to Tobacco statistics tables (January 2026)

Figure 3 demonstrates several trends for cigarette and hand-rolling tobacco yearly receipts:

• cigarette receipts have steadily decreased in the last 10 years, from £8,299 million in the 2014 to 2015 financial year to £5,914 million in the 2024 to 2025 financial year

• hand-rolling tobacco receipts increased by 109% from £1,141 million in the 2014 to 2015 financial year to £2,390 million in the 2021 to 2022 financial year.

• hand-rolling tobacco receipts have since decreased by 26% to £1,771 million and cigarettes by 23% to £1,790 million in the 2024 to 2025 financial year

Figure 4: Cigar and other products yearly tobacco receipts for the previous 10 financial years

For the full dataset that accompanies Figure 4 go to Tobacco statistics tables (January 2026)

Figure 4 demonstrates several trends for cigar and other tobacco products yearly receipts:

• cigar receipts have increased by 130% since the 2017 to 2018 financial year, from £64 million to £157 million in the 2024 to 2025 financial year

• receipts from other tobacco products increased by 266% from £24 million in the 2018 to 2019 financial year, to £88 million in the 2022 to 2023 financial year. This growth was primarily driven by receipts in March 2023

• receipts then decreased by 44% in the 2023 to 2024 financial year, before increasing by 74% to £85 million in the 2024 to 2025 financial year

6. Contacts

The Tobacco Bulletin is produced by the Indirect Tax Receipts Monitoring team as part of the Excise duties, VAT, and other indirect tax statistics collection.

For statistical enquiries, contact:

revenuemonitoring@hmrc.gov.uk

For media enquiries, see HMRC press office. Telephone: 03000 550 493