Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, when he plans to announce the implementation of industry standards for those e-cigarettes regulated as consumer products.

The revised European Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU), which has a transposition deadline of May 2016, establishes new rules for the safety, quality, ingredients and presentation of consumer electronic cigarettes, as well as refill mechanisms. The new regulations will require six month prior notification of a range of information before either e-cigarettes or refills are placed on the market.

In the meantime, e-cigarettes are subject to general product safety regulatory requirements, which include powers for local trading standard officers to withdraw unsafe products from the market.