CIGARETTES would be sold only under the counter if plans being considered by Scottish ministers are implemented.

Ministerial advisers believe politicians must go further than the ban on smoking in public places to tackle chronic rates of cancer among Scots. They believe that removing cigarettes from point-of-sale displays in shops would deter young people from starting to smoke.

Scotland already has some of the world’s toughest anti-tobacco laws, after ministers banned smoking in pubs and restaurants and advised local authorities to extend the ban to parks, play areas and outside school gates.

Further to this, the minimum age for buying cigarettes is expected to be raised to 18 next spring.

The latest plan, by members of the same ministerial advisory group behind the minimum-age proposal, would force shopkeepers to hide cigarettes from view and store all tobacco products in cabinets under the counter.

The move would end “back-door advertising” from tobacco companies, which are creating very sophisticated point-of-sale cigarette displays and packaging — the only marketing avenues left after the UK-wide tobacco advertising ban.

Iceland, Thailand and Ireland have already legislated to ban display cabinets for cigarettes.

The advisers also want cigarettes to be sold in plain wrappers to make them less attractive to young smokers after new research found a proportion of the public were drawn to stylish cigarette packaging.

The Scottish parliament lacks the power to force tobacco companies to change their packaging, but an internal SNP policy paper obtained by The Sunday Times shows the nationalists would insist on the move in an independent Scotland.

Professor Gerard Hastings, a member of the Scottish executive’s ministerial advisory group for tobacco and director of Stirling University’s Institute of Social Marketing, said the moves were “the obvious next steps”.

Hastings added: “Cigarettes in full view in shops are essentially a big billboard. Point-of-sale displays are common in corner shops, where many under-age smokers buy cigarettes.

“A move to end point-of-sale displays would significantly reduce the incidence of smoking, particularly among young people.

“The same applies to generic packaging. Branding is a powerful drive for young smokers. The advertising ban has gone a long way in diminishing the effect of branding, but packaging is still emblazoned with clear imagery,” he said.

Maureen Moore, the director of Action on Smoking and Health Scotland and a member of the advisory group, said: “Diminishing awareness of brands will have a knock-on effect and reduce tobacco uptake. We’d like to see cigarettes presented as they are: uniquely dangerous. They have to be treated differently from other products.”

Unpublished research by Stirling University and the Open University found the tobacco advertising ban has significantly reduced adolescents’ awareness of tobacco advertising.

In 1999, 77% of young people were aware of advertising on billboards and advertising, a figure that dropped to 48% in 2004, 18 months after the ban. Awareness of signs and posters in shops dropped from 72% in 1999 to 51% in 2004.

Stewart Maxwell, the SNP MSP who spearheaded the campaign to ban smoking in public, said generic packaging could spare future generations from cancer. An internal party document shows the party is likely to adopt the policy at its annual conference in October.

But Maxwell warned that driving the cigarette trade under the counter might encourage young people to smoke by attaching mystique to it.

Neil Rafferty, a spokesman for the tobacco lobby Forest, criticised the latest plans as “ludicrous extremism”.

“Advisers and politicians need to start respecting the electorate and treating them like adults,” he added.

Evidence from Ireland also suggests that tobacco restrictions can backfire. After a slump in cigarette sales in 2004, when its smoking ban came in, they rose by 2% last year.

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