Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she will take additional steps to prevent (a) shops and (b) other licensed sellers from selling e-cigarettes to people under the age of 18.

The Department provides central funding to local authorities to support local trading standards activity to enforce these regulations. It is for local authorities to decide how this funding is allocated across local services, including how to address the underage sale of e-cigarettes. The Department provides advice to small businesses via the online Business Companion site, which includes advice on compliance with age of sale requirements.

However, we are exploring which additional measures could be introduced to prevent the sale of e-cigarettes to people under the age of 18 years old.