Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of progress by the British Standards Institute towards the creation of a publicly available specification for e-cigarettes.

The Department has not undertaken an assessment of work on developing best practice standards by the British Standards Institute.

The revised Tobacco Products Directive (Directive 2014/40/EU), which will enter into force from May 2016, will ensure a high level of health protection for United Kingdom citizens. It will introduce a new system of regulation for e-cigarettes and the continued availability of products that meet the regulatory requirements. We will consult, in due course, on plans for implementation.