Tobacco and Vapes Bill

Debate between Baroness Finlay of Llandaff and Baroness Fox of Buckley

Committee stage
Thursday 30th October 2025 Grand Committee

[Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)]

My Lords, I too support the amendment, and I have a question for those who have tabled it, which relates to proposed new subsection (2)(b), saying the product is

“not intended to be inhaled or chewed”.

I am afraid that as someone who has been looking at tobacco control measures for many years now, through legislation, I am slightly concerned that, as we get rid of one thing, the nicotine manufacturers will find another way of bringing in a substance that is, in effect, addictive, which is promoted to young people, and is a way to get them started on the inevitable chain of addiction that leads to promotion.

When we look at the evidence around nicotine, we see that, yes, it is highly addictive, but the other thing that happens with an addictive substance is that you become tolerant to the effect, to that boost. Therefore, the addict seeks higher and higher doses to get a greater and greater hit. In the long term, as my noble friend Lord Patel pointed out, it is not only blood pressure and so on; there is a problem with platelet stickiness. We do not know what this will do in the microvasculature in the brain in the long term, because these high-dose nicotine products have not been around long enough and we have not had enough brains that have come to post-mortems—I am sorry to put it so bluntly—of people who have been using them for a long time. The hit that they get is greater than they would get from smoking a cigarette.

[Baroness Fox of Buckley (Non-Afl)]

I want to clarify how we make policy based on evidence if that evidence is unknown unknowns about what might possibly be the problem with something. It is absolutely the case that, where there is proof of harm, evidence is given and medical papers are produced. They have not been produced on this issue—I have looked—so it would be useful to see lots of peer-reviewed evidence that showed harm. To suggest that something could be a harm because we have not had long enough to find out whether it is a harm does not seem to be the basis of sensible evidence-based policy.

[Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)]

I completely take that criticism; it is a fair comment. However, we know the damage to the brain microvasculature from smoking over the long term and that these substances are highly addictive. We also know that when we previously took through tobacco control measures, we never anticipated vapes or pouches. The evidence therefore is that those producing nicotine products are very imaginative and creative, and there is concern about this being used as a gateway to further addictive products. That is why I question whether proposed new subsection (2)(b) is necessary or adds anything to Amendment 13, which otherwise should be strongly supported.