Question to the Home Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what assessment the Government has made of the prevalence of illicit trade in (a) black market vaping liquid and (b) cannabis and THC vaping liquid; and what estimate her Department has made of the proportions of those products that contain synthetic cannabinoid Spice.

The government funded the Chartered Trading Standards Institute to undertake a review of compliance of nicotine vaping products. The latest report, ‘The Tobacco Control Survey for England 2018/19: A Report of Trading Standards Service Activity’ reports that of the 1,273 visits made by 69 councils to assess nicotine vaping product compliance, 17% of visits found non-compliant nicotine inhaling products, in line with the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016. The report is available on the Trading Standards website: www.tradingstandards.uk

The government has made no assessment of the proportions of those products that contain synthetic cannabinoids.