Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, if she will take steps to reduce the number of illegal tobacco and vaping products on sale in South Holland and the Deepings constituency.

The Government is committed to reducing the number of illicit tobacco and vaping products on sale nationally.

HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) has a robust strategy to tackle the illicit tobacco trade ‘Stubbing Out the Problem’.

HMRC works closely with National and Local Trading Standards to disrupt the illicit tobacco trade at retail level through Operation CeCe, which has since it began in January 2021removed more than 74 million illicit cigarettes, 19,750kg of hand-rolling tobacco and almost 175kg of shisha products from sale.

HMRC has also introduced a strengthened sanctions regime for breaches of the UK Tobacco Track and Trace System to combat illicit tobacco sales. This granted new powers to Trading Standards, enabling them to refer cases to HMRC where they find evidence of high street retailers selling tobacco products that do not comply with the System. HMRC can then then investigate and issue civil sanctions, including penalties of up to £10,000.

£100 million of new ‘smokefree’ funding has been allocated over 5 years to boost existing HMRC and Border Force enforcement capability.

Between April 2023 and March 2024, HMRC and Border Force seized 1.36bn cigarettes and 92,435kg of hand-rolling tobacco.

As with tobacco, there is a cross-government approach to reducing the number of illegal vapes. The vaping equivalent of Operation CeCe - Operation Joseph led to the seizure of over 1 million illegal vapes in 2023-24, the last full year for which statistics are available.

HMRC are working closely with both Trading Standards and Border Force to develop a robust compliance approach for the introduction of Vaping Products Duty (VPD) on 1 October 2026.

VPD is a new excise duty on vaping products, which will introduce additional compliance powers and controls across the vaping supply chain. This includes the introduction of a Vaping Duty Stamps (VDS) scheme, which will require highly secure stamps to be placed on all duty paid goods, supporting enforcement agencies and customers to identify illegal products.

HMRC are recruiting over 300 staff to strengthen this compliance approach and deliver VPD.