Asked by: Preet Kaur Gill (Labour (Co-op) - Birmingham, Edgbaston)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate she has made (a) of the number of vaping products that have been seized by trading standards and (b) of those, the number that (i) were non-compliant with UK regulations and (ii) have gone through the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency notification process.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The underage and illicit sale of tobacco, and more recently vapes, undermines the work the Government is doing to regulate the industry and protect public health. The Government is increasing investment for our enforcement agencies by £30 million per year. In addition, the Government also announced £3 million of investment to a new illicit vapes enforcement unit, led by National Trading Standards, building on existing work by trading standards officers across the country. They identified that 2.1 million illicit vapes were seized across England by trading standards in 2022 to 2023. These vapes often contain unknown ingredients, higher levels of nicotine, and are often made easily available through markets that target children. The Department does not hold data on the total number of vaping products seized by Trading Standards that have successfully gone through the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s notification process.
Asked by: Andrew Lewer (Conservative - Northampton South)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an assessment of the implications for her policies of the outcomes of the Tenth session of the Conference of the Parties to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control; and if she will have discussions with the Leader of the House on making parliamentary time available for scrutiny of those outcomes.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Smoking is the number one entirely preventable cause of ill-health, disability, and death in this country. It is responsible for 80,000 deaths in the United Kingdom a year, and one in four of all UK cancer deaths. It costs our country £17 billion a year, £14 billion of which is through lost productivity alone. It puts huge pressure on the National Health Service and social care, costing over £3 billion a year. This is why the Government is committed to creating the first smokefree generation, ensuring no child born after 1 January 2009 will ever legally be sold tobacco.
The tenth Conference of Parties (COP10) to the World Health Organisation Framework Convention on Tobacco control was an opportunity for the UK to showcase our international leadership on tobacco control. No decisions from COP10 will impact our plans to create the first smokefree generation, or our policies on vaping. I will update the House shortly on the outcomes from COP10.
Asked by: Rachael Maskell (Labour (Co-op) - York Central)
Question to the HM Treasury:
To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps he plans to take with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle the trade in illicit vapes, in the context of the introduction of duties on vapes at the Spring Budget 2024.
Answered by Gareth Davies - Exchequer Secretary (HM Treasury)
Proposals for a Vaping Products Duty which will come in force from October 2026 are set out in the consultation here: https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/vaping-products-duty-consultation
These include measures to tackle non-compliance, including:
HMRC will collaborate and share intelligence with agencies such as Border Force and Trading Standards, who will have enhanced their capabilities around vaping by the time the duty is introduced.
HMRC also intends to recruit operational staff to enforce the duty, integrating with existing tobacco compliance teams and building on HMRC’s recent success in driving down the tobacco tax gap. This success includes reducing the illicit trade for hand-rolling tobacco from 65.2% in 2005 to 33.5% in 2021/22 and for cigarettes from 16.9% to 11% over the same period.
Asked by: Lord Kempsell (Conservative - Life peer)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask His Majesty's Government how many designated smoking and vaping areas are currently located within the central Government administrative estate.
Answered by Baroness Neville-Rolfe - Minister of State (Cabinet Office)
Within the Government Property Agency managed estate there are 6 designated smoking and vaping areas. These are at the following GPA locations:
10 South Colonnade
Whitechapel Building
70 Whitehall
Leicester
Stoke on Trent
Mold
These are either legacy arrangements or provided by the superior landlord for all tenants.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department is taking steps to use (a) licensing and (b) planning powers to reduce the number of mini markets trading in illegal vapes.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is concerned about the increase in the number of illicit vapes in the United Kingdom’s market, as well as the access and availability of these vapes to children. In April of last year, we provided £3 million of funding for a new enforcement unit to tackle the illegal and underage sale of vapes, which has conducted targeted inspections in retail outlets and ports, upskilled trading standards officers, and piloted online underage test programmes.
Whilst there are no current plans to introduce a licensing scheme, we have also recently announced a further £30 million of additional funding per year to tackle illicit and underage sales of tobacco and vape products. This additional funding in England will boost agencies such as local trading standards, to enforce the new age of sale and vaping restrictions.
Alongside this package of funding, we are also taking assertive action to reduce youth vaping more generally. We recently published our response to the smoking and vaping consultation, which sets out plans to reduce the appeal and availability of vapes to children, through introducing restrictions on flavours, packaging, and point of sale display. Our response to the consultation is available at the following link:
We have also announced that we will ban the sale and supply of disposable vapes, and have set out plans to introduce a £100 fixed penalty notice for underage sales of tobacco and vaping products. The Government will introduce legislation as soon as possible.
Asked by: Peter Gibson (Conservative - Darlington)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help tackle the (a) criminal, (b) health and (c) licensing issues arising from the sale of illegal vapes.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is concerned about the increase in the number of illicit vapes in the United Kingdom’s market, as well as the access and availability of these vapes to children. In April of last year, we provided £3 million of funding for a new enforcement unit to tackle the illegal and underage sale of vapes, which has conducted targeted inspections in retail outlets and ports, upskilled trading standards officers, and piloted online underage test programmes.
Whilst there are no current plans to introduce a licensing scheme, we have also recently announced a further £30 million of additional funding per year to tackle illicit and underage sales of tobacco and vape products. This additional funding in England will boost agencies such as local trading standards, to enforce the new age of sale and vaping restrictions.
Alongside this package of funding, we are also taking assertive action to reduce youth vaping more generally. We recently published our response to the smoking and vaping consultation, which sets out plans to reduce the appeal and availability of vapes to children, through introducing restrictions on flavours, packaging, and point of sale display. Our response to the consultation is available at the following link:
We have also announced that we will ban the sale and supply of disposable vapes, and have set out plans to introduce a £100 fixed penalty notice for underage sales of tobacco and vaping products. The Government will introduce legislation as soon as possible.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:
To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what assessment he has made of the potential impact of the proposal to ban disposable vapes on the illicit vape market.
Answered by Robbie Moore - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs)
On 29 January, a ban on the supply and sale of disposable vapes was announced as part of the Government’s response to its consultation on smoking and vaping that was launched in October last year. A ban on the supply and sale of these throwaway items will help to protect our environment, as well as future generations, from the harmful effects of disposable vapes. We will be working with the appropriate bodies to ensure that the ban, when introduced, is enforceable to minimise illicit vapes entering the market.
Asked by: Karl McCartney (Conservative - Lincoln)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will publish the names of the organisations who disclosed links to the tobacco industry that responded to the consultation entitled Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Smoking is the number one entirely preventable cause of ill-health, disability and death in this country. It is responsible for 80,000 deaths in the United Kingdom a year, and one in four of all UK cancer deaths. It costs our country £17 billion a year, £14 billion of which is through lost productivity alone. It puts huge pressure on the National Health Service and social care, costing over £3 billion a year.
The Government response to the consultation entitled Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping, was published on 29 January 2024. The consultation received nearly 28,000 responses. Whilst there are no plans to publish the names of all the organisations that responded, we did confirm that we received responses from 896 organisations as well as 307 responses from those who disclosed links with the tobacco industry.
As outlined in our consultation response, the UK is a party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and so had an obligation to protect public health policy from the vested interests of the tobacco industry. In the consultation response we summarise the views of respondents with disclosed links to the tobacco industry but have been clear that we have not considered these views when determining our policy response.
Asked by: Karl McCartney (Conservative - Lincoln)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will publish the names of the organisations that responded to the consultation entitled Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
Smoking is the number one entirely preventable cause of ill-health, disability and death in this country. It is responsible for 80,000 deaths in the United Kingdom a year, and one in four of all UK cancer deaths. It costs our country £17 billion a year, £14 billion of which is through lost productivity alone. It puts huge pressure on the National Health Service and social care, costing over £3 billion a year.
The Government response to the consultation entitled Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping, was published on 29 January 2024. The consultation received nearly 28,000 responses. Whilst there are no plans to publish the names of all the organisations that responded, we did confirm that we received responses from 896 organisations as well as 307 responses from those who disclosed links with the tobacco industry.
As outlined in our consultation response, the UK is a party to the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and so had an obligation to protect public health policy from the vested interests of the tobacco industry. In the consultation response we summarise the views of respondents with disclosed links to the tobacco industry but have been clear that we have not considered these views when determining our policy response.
Asked by: Craig Whittaker (Conservative - Calder Valley)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has considered the potential merits of introducing a retailer licensing scheme for the sale of vapes.
Answered by Andrea Leadsom - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
The Government is concerned about the worrying rise in vaping among children. Youth vaping has tripled in the last three years, and one in five children now use a vape. To address this, we recently published our response to the smoking and vaping consultation, which sets out our plan to restrict vape flavours, point of sale display, and packaging. The response is available at the following link:
We also set out our plans to introduce an age of sale requirement for non-nicotine vapes and other consumer nicotine products, as well as a £100 fixed penalty notice for underage sales of tobacco and vaping products. In addition, the consultation response announced that disposable vapes will be banned, which will be taken forward by the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs. The Government will introduce legislation as soon as possible.
Whilst there are no current plans to introduce a retail licensing scheme, we have announced £30 million of additional funding per year to tackle illicit and underage sales of tobacco and vape products. In April last year, we also provided funding for a new enforcement unit to tackle the illegal and underage sale of vapes, which has conducted targeted inspections in ports, upskilled trading standards officers, and piloted online underage test programmes.