Tobacco and Vapes Bill

Lord Bichard Excerpts

2nd reading
Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bichard (CB)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as chair of the National Trading Standards Board, which is responsible for the most complex trading standards prosecutions and which works with government on a number of key priorities, including preventing the sale of illicit tobacco and vapes. Since trading standards receives so little parliamentary attention, I hope the House will excuse me if I pay tribute tonight to the officers across the country who do an outstanding job in protecting consumers and legitimate businesses. Thank you for allowing me that.

The trading standards community, it must be said, strongly supports this Bill, for four main reasons. First, we believe that, overall, it strikes the right balance between the need to protect consumers, especially young people, and the need to achieve the public health benefit of vaping as an alternative for those who already smoke. The noble Earl, Lord Howe, made one or two points which need to be given attention, but we think that, overall, the balance is about right. Secondly, we welcome that the Secretary of State will be able to regulate vape advertising, packaging, flavour descriptors and retail displays so that products can no longer be deliberately—some might even say cynically—designed to attract children. We hope that those relevant regulations can be introduced swiftly.

Thirdly, we believe that the introduction of a licensing scheme for businesses selling tobacco, vapes and nicotine products is long overdue. It will clarify and strengthen enforcement, support legitimate business and deter rogue retailers. Finally—a point that has not been mentioned yet today—we support the introduction of fixed penalty notices to enable action to be taken more swiftly, and to take some of the pressure off our court system.

So there is a great deal of support for this legislation in the trading standards community, but we are also confident that we can enforce it. We are already used to policing regulations which cover advertising products, product content and age of sale, although clearly, there is more work and thinking to be done on that issue. We are also increasingly effective at dealing with illicit tobacco and vapes. Last year alone, 1 million vapes, 19 million cigarettes and 5,000 kilograms of illicit tobacco were seized. The important point is that the Chartered Trading Standards Institute feels quite strongly, and has evidence, that better regulation, better enforcement and tax disincentives do not lead to a thriving black market. In the last 20 years in the UK there has been a reduction in the sale of illicit cigarettes—down from 17 billion to 2.5 billion.

The trading standards community supports the Bill and thinks it can enforce it, but with four caveats. Of course, there are always “buts”. First, successful enforcement depends on resources. Over the last decade, spending on trading standards has been cut by 50%, staffing numbers have reduced by between 30% and 50%, and last year one London borough did not even employ a trading standards officer. The promised additional £10 million is welcome, but it should be seen as a downpayment. If the Government cannot support more funding, they should seriously look at the idea of a “polluter pays” levy, as the Khan review and the APPG have suggested, and as the noble Lords, Lord Young, Lord Crisp and Lord Bethell, have suggested this evening.

The second caveat is that when introduced, regulations need to be clear and simple to make enforcement straightforward. That means that enforcement agencies should be involved in drafting the regulations to avoid loopholes. Policy experts in Whitehall are not the best people to draft such regulations. Thirdly, the Government need swiftly to regulate nicotine pouches because of their rapid growth and great danger. Finally, we need to take more seriously the illegal importation of tobacco and nicotine products at our ports. I recently visited Southampton and Dover. The trading standards and Border Force officials there were committed and working hard to avoid illegal products being imported, but frankly, I left feeling that they did not have the resources to do the job well. We need to stem the flow of illegal products into our ports. Legislation without resources achieves very little.

Tobacco and Vapes Bill

Lord Bichard Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 27th October 2025 Grand Committee

[Lord Bichard (CB)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as chair of the National Trading Standards Board. In that capacity, I make one or two points that I made in the Bill Committee and at Second Reading, as they may be helpful in the context of this debate on these early amendments and because trading standards professionals will of course be on the front line in enforcing this legislation. It is therefore important to know whether they are confident about it. By the way, I regret suggestions that trading standards is in some way being ineffective at the moment. It has certainly been starved of resources, but I cannot think of a profession that has found new ways of using its resources more effectively better than trading standards. I once again pay tribute to the work that it does—in no way is it ineffective.

What it currently feels about this Bill is quite interesting. In saying these few words, let me say that I have spoken to the Chartered Trading Standards Institute and it is content with what I am about to say. The first point is that, in a recent survey of all trading standards staff, 80% of professionals supported this Bill and felt that it provides a good balance between the strategy that people have to get off smoking and protecting, in particular, younger people. They believe quite strongly that the provisions in this Bill can be enforced. They feel very positive about what I would call the “one date policy” because it will avoid retailers having to check several dates on ID every year; there will be just one date for them to focus on. It will also avoid—this has not been mentioned yet—people who are currently able to buy cigarettes having that right taken away from them. That is a flashpoint for retailers; I take very seriously the point that has been made about the threat that retailers are working under.

Trading standards also points to the fact that people often say that increased regulation and increased costs cause the illicit market to boom. There is no real evidence for that—certainly not in this country. I am not a smoker, but the cost of cigarettes has increased from £1 for 20 in 1987 to £16 or £17 for 20 in 2025; that has already been mentioned. Yet the market for illegal cigarettes reduced from 15 billion sticks sold to 2 billion sticks sold in the same period; actually, that was from 2000 to 2025. So the impact of regulation and price increases has not, at least in this country, been to increase the illicit market; that market is under control.

The other two points that the professionals make are, first, that they believe that the retail licensing in the Bill will actually improve standards in the retail landscape and, therefore, they support that as well. Where do they have doubts? They want resources, of course; everyone always does. Is the fixed penalty notice a sufficient sanction? Perhaps, but perhaps not; it depends on the circumstances, I think, and it will need to be kept under review.

I am trying to paint a picture here of a group of professionals who are under huge pressure, who have great commitment to their work and who actually support most of the provisions in this Bill.

[Baroness Northover (LD)]

My Lords, most of the amendments here may seem limited in scope but, as we have heard, they have in fact been set down to seek both to delay and to water down this Bill.

This weekend, my daughter and I visited my 24 year-old nephew where he is currently studying. As we walked along, he rolled cigarettes. I mentioned to him that I would be involved in the Tobacco and Vapes Bill today and that the aim was to create a smoke-free generation. He stopped in his tracks, turned to me and said, “Just get this passed now”. He then said, “I never want my son, if I ever have one, ever to take up smoking”. He told me that, several weeks earlier, he had given up vaping. He told me how difficult he found it. He hopes he can keep to it, despite repeatedly seeking to give up both vaping and smoking. He started among his peers in his teens, at the age of 14. He has not managed to kick the habit thus far. No one else in his family smokes. He fully knows the risks. No amount of warning on packets can deter the urge that he has. Try as he might, he just cannot kick the habit.

We know how addictive this is, which is why it is vital to stop the habit starting among the young. My nephew’s desire in his teens to do what all his friends were doing led him to smoking via highly attractive vapes, which is precisely what the industry knows. It is also precisely why this legislation, brought forward after the Khan review and then by former Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is so visionary. We must deliver this, yet many of these amendments seek to undermine it. The industry is very adept at working on opposition, as has been the case over so many years.