Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate he has made of how many (a) non-smokers and (b) ex-smokers have taken up vaping in the last year.

Using the latest Office for National Statistics data from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, the Department estimates that in England in 2021 there were around 1.6 million ex-smokers that currently vaped, an increase from around 1.4 million in 2020.

There were around 495,000 non-smokers that currently vaped in England in 2021, an increase from around 375,000 in 2020.

The full data set is available at the following link:

https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/drugusealcoholandsmoking/datasets/ecigaretteuseingreatbritain