A study showed that the Kingdom has Scotland’s highest percentage of regular tobacco use in the 13- and 15-year-old age groups.

The Scottish Schools Adolescent Lifestyle and Substance Use Survey asks secondary school pupils about smoking, drinking and drug taking.

The biennial study was taken in 2013 and published last November.

It said 7.6 per cent of all the Fife school students they asked regularly lit up – the highest figure in Scotland – while three per cent of Fife kids aged 13 and 12 per cent of those aged 15 said they were regular smokers.

The national figures were two and nine per cent respectively. However, the proportion of 13 and 15 year olds who reported being regular smokers in 2013 was the lowest since the survey began in 1982.

And more are being turned off nicotine with the proportion of Fife pupils who said they had never smoked rising from 43 per cent in 2002 to 72 per cent in 2013.

Fife Council said they were also encouraged that the percentage of those kids buying cigarettes from shops had plummeted from 48 per cent in 2010 to 21 per cent.

More legislation is planned to reduce consumption of tobacco in general and reduce access to it from those aged under 18.

The display of tobacco in shops and supermarkets – apart from specialist tobacco businesses – was banned from 6th April and Fife Council has been consulted by the Scottish Government about proposals to control the sale and use of e-cigarettes.

The UK Government is also pressing forward with legislation to for standardised, plain packaging for tobacco.