Tobacco and Vapes Bill 2024: Proposals and Effects
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill was introduced to the House of Commons in March 2024 – here’s what it says and how it may affect you.
The dangers of smoking are shocking and at times, unfathomable.
80,000 people die in the UK every year due to tobacco consumption, which is exposing them to over 70 different cancer causing chemicals.
It is a popular consumer product in a consumer society, yet it kills up to two thirds of its users, 80% of which begin smoking before the age of 20.
NHS guidance recommends vapes to people who wish to stop smoking, with e-cigarettes lauded as one of the most effective tools in quitting smoking.
Yet vaping presents its own dangers through improper use.
The number of children using vapes has tripled in the past 3 years, and Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) found that from March-April of 2023, 20.5% of children had tried vaping, whether it be only once or more.
Despite the controversy of the disposable ban and proposed vaping legislations, one thing we can all agree on is that children, and those who have never smoked, should not be vaping or smoking.
How will these problems be solved, and what does the Tobacco and Vapes Bill of 2024 propose?
Tobacco and Vapes Bill Outline
The 2024 Tobacco and Vapes bill is aiming to create the first ever smokefree generation, in line with the government’s ambition for a smokefree England by 2030.
Here are the key points you need to know:
- Phasing out the sale of tobacco products by making it an offence to sell them to those born on or after 1 January 2009
- Reducing the appeal of vaping products by regulating flavours, packaging, contents and where they are displayed
- Making it an offence to sell non-nicotine vaping products to under 18s in England and Wales
- Making it an offence for anyone above 18 to purchase tobacco products on behalf of those born on or after 1 January 2009
- Providing enforcement authorities the power to issue penalties of £100 for the underage sale of tobacco and vaping products
Are vape flavours being banned?
No, flavours will be regulated to prevent them appealing to youths.
Evidence from an ASH survey of child vaping suggests that 60% of child vapers are using a fruit flavoured vape, while an additional 25% were using sweets or soft drink flavours.
With flavours evident to be an important factor motivating young vapers, the government has moved to introduce powers that would see vape flavours restricted, without consequence on adult smoking rates.
The government are not banning your favourite flavours and don’t wish to impact adult usage. However, they have stated that further consultation is needed before specific regulations are introduced. More than likely, this will be tricky to implement without some consequence on a portion of adult vapers.
Why is the age of sale for vapes not rising?
It has been decided that the age of sale won’t be gradually rising for vapes, which are an effective tool for stop smoking services; instead, strong measures will be put into place to make them less accessible to children.
Children turning 15 this year or younger will never be legally sold tobacco in the UK. The age of sale is being raised by one year each year to prevent future generations from ever taking up smoking.
Tobacco products can cause at least 15 different types of cancer and kills two thirds of its users. Vaping exposes users to far less toxins, and poses a fraction of the risk that smoking does, according to NHS Better Health.
Young adult ex-smokers who now vape, breathe a sigh of relief.
Vape Packaging and Displays
The Tobacco and Vapes bill states that brightly coloured boxes and cartoonish images are enticing factors for children.
Research by King’s College London does in fact suggest that youths favour vapes in branded packaging rather than standardised green packaging, while adults reported lower odds of this.
This indicates that standardising vape packaging would be an excellent solution to the current problems posed by child vaping, as it would most likely not be a detriment to adults who are using vapes as a tool to stop smoking.
Displaying vapes in accessible points at retail stores will also be prohibited, due to the fact that vapes are currently allowed to be displayed anywhere for sale.
Unlike tobacco products, vapes are more accessible in some retail settings to be seen and picked up by children.
This should be another solid solution to the problem of youth vaping. Adults who want to stop smoking won’t likely rest their decision to vape on whether their desired product is displayed obviously in a shop.
A child’s decision to see and want to vape may very well rest on this, so making vapes physically harder to access should only deter children.
Non-nicotine vapes
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will also introduce a new age of sale restriction for non-nicotine vapes in the UK, which are currently not subject to the same age restrictions for nicotine vapes.
The government feasibly claim that non-nicotine vapes can serve as a gateway to nicotine-containing e-cigs, and loopholes can be found in the current legislation, as nicotine can be added to non-nicotine vape products, such as shortfills.
Non-nicotine vapes will therefore be regulated in the same way as nicotine vapes, with regards to flavour, packaging and displays.
Product Notifications
To supply a nicotine vape on the current UK market, businesses have to notify their product to the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) to make sure it is in compliance with the TRPR.
In light of the new restrictions and regulations on vaping products, such as flavours and packaging, the current notification system is set to be amended so that businesses have to comply with the new rules.
This ensures that businesses must leave no room for interpretation in gearing their products toward adult smokers.
When will the Tobacco and Vapes Bill come into force?
It is the government’s intention for these proposed restrictions to come into force at the same time as the disposable ban, 2025.
However, the Bill hasn’t yet been passed in parliament, and all of the proposed restrictions will be subject to further analysis in order to make possible a scenario in which child smoking/ vaping decreases while adult vapers do not return to smoking due to inconveniences.
Summary
There are positives and negatives regarding the Tobacco and Vapes Bill and the general handling of the problems posed by smoking and vaping.
The intent toward a smokefree country by 2030 is fantastic, and the issue of child vaping is a clear one which needs to be addressed.
Yet it is proving challenging to deter children from vaping while also increasing the amount of smokers who quit, given the effectiveness of e-cigarettes as a stop smoking tool.
Regulations such as standardising vape packaging could prove highly effective, making products less accessible to children as adults remain largely unaffected. The same goes for the regulation of non nicotine vapes, and changing the point of display in retail settings.
However, regulating vape flavours, banning disposables and introducing a vaping product duty are all factors that are coming into play which will likely dissuade a large number of adult vapers who are losing the incentives that made them quit smoking.
All of the restrictions will be subject to further discussion and research, as parliament hasn’t passed the bill. Not much is set in stone as of now, besides the disposable ban and the vaping tax, which will go hand in hand with an increase in tobacco duty too.
Check out our article describing the impact of the 2024 disposable ban.
