Tobacco and Vapes Bill 2024
Information relating to the Tobacco and Vapes Bill which was introduced in the House of Commons on 20 March 2024.
Smoking damages and cuts lives short in extraordinary numbers - 80,000 people die every year in the UK due to tobacco. No other consumer product kills up to two-thirds of its long-term users. It is a major cause of ill health (including cancer, stroke, heart failure) and disability. Smoking increases multimorbidity (many diseases at once) and can cause particularly complex disease states, requiring multiple hospital and GP visits.
Non-smokers are exposed to second-hand smoke (passive smoking) which means that through no choice of their own many come to harm - in particular children, pregnant women and their babies.
Those who wish to quit often struggle, due to their addiction to nicotine. Over 80% of smokers start before they turn 20, most as children.
Vapes are substantially less harmful than smoking because they do not contain tobacco, and therefore can be an effective tool in supporting smoking cessation. However, the number of children using vapes has tripled in the past 3 years and a staggering 20.5% of children had tried vaping in March to April 2023.
Due to nicotine content and the unknown long-term harms, vaping carries risk of harm and addiction for children. The health advice is clear: young people and those who have never smoked should not vape. We have a duty to protect our children and young people from the potential harms associated with underage vaping, while their lungs and brains are still developing.
We want to stop the start of addiction and this is why the government is bringing forward legislation to create the first ever smokefree generation.
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will:
1. Create the first ever smokefree generation by:
- making it an offence to sell tobacco products to those born on or after 1 January 2009, thereby phasing out the sale of tobacco products, while not stopping anyone who currently legally smokes from being able to do so. This will mean anyone who turns 15 or younger in 2024 will never legally be sold tobacco products
- amending existing legislation to make it an offence for anyone over 18 to purchase tobacco products on behalf of those born on or after 1 January 2009 (proxy purchasing)
- supporting the enforcement of the new measures by requiring retailers to update the current age of sale notices (or warning statements) to read: ‘It is illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009’
2. Reduce the appeal and availability of vaping products by:
- providing powers for ministers to regulate:
- the flavours and contents of vaping products
- the packaging and product presentation of vaping products
- point of sale displays of vaping products
- making it an offence to sell non-nicotine vaping products to someone who is under 18 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland already has this in place
- introducing a ban on the free distribution of vaping products to under 18s in England and Wales, and provide Northern Ireland with a power to also introduce a ban. Scotland already has these powers
- providing ministers with powers to extend the measures outlined above for vaping products to other nicotine products such as nicotine pouches
3. Strengthen enforcement of underage sales of tobacco and vapes by:
- providing enforcement authorities in England and Wales with the power to issue Fixed Penalty Notices of £100 for the underage sale of tobacco products and vaping products
- continuing to apply existing penalties to give Trading Standards the ability to escalate to a level 4 fine (up to £2,500), as well as restricted premises orders and restricted sales orders for repeat offenders in England and Wales
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill in Parliament.