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.