Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle the trade in illicit vapes, in the context of the introduction of duties on vapes at the Spring Budget 2024.

Proposals for a Vaping Products Duty which will come in force from October 2026 are set out in the consultation here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/vaping-products-duty-consultation

These include measures to tackle non-compliance, including:

• Declaration and payments via digital channels to minimise fraud and error.
• The introduction of civil and criminal powers for HMRC to assess for duty, seize products and equipment/vehicles used to produce or transport illicit product.
• Penalties for those who do not meet their obligations.

HMRC will collaborate and share intelligence with agencies such as Border Force and Trading Standards, who will have enhanced their capabilities around vaping by the time the duty is introduced.

HMRC also intends to recruit operational staff to enforce the duty, integrating with existing tobacco compliance teams and building on HMRC’s recent success in driving down the tobacco tax gap. This success includes reducing the illicit trade for hand-rolling tobacco from 65.2% in 2005 to 33.5% in 2021/22 and for cigarettes from 16.9% to 11% over the same period.