TTTC2050 - Overview of the UK Tobacco Track and Trace system

The UK is a signatory to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, which requires Parties to implement a system to track tobacco products manufactured in or imported into its territory. The EU also ratified the Protocol and so the UK formed part of an EU-wide traceability system that launched in May 2019.

Article 8 of the Protocol obliges all parties to introduce a tracking solution for tobacco products within five years for cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco and ten years for other tobacco products such as cigars and cigarillos.

Following EU Exit, at the end of the Transition Period, The UK introduced its own standalone Tobacco Track and Trace system (TT&T), from 1 January 2021, which tracks products manufactured in, or imported into the UK to the first retailer. Tobacco products are scanned as they make their way through the supply chain and that data is stored in a UK data repository.

For Tobacco products in Northern Ireland, data is submitted to data repositories in both the UK and EU systems.

The Tobacco Products (Traceability System and Security Features) (Amendments) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 make the necessary amendments to the retained Commission Implementing Regulations (EU) 2018/574 to ensure a traceability system is established and operates for the whole of the UK, including Northern Ireland.