Asked by: Samantha Dixon (Labour - City of Chester)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to (a) reduce the number of young people recreationally using e-cigarettes and (b) prevent young people moving from using e-cigarettes to tobacco cigarettes or other tobacco products.
Answered by Neil O'Brien
The Government is clear that vaping should only be used to help people quit smoking. Vapes should not be used by people under 18 years old or non-smokers. Vapes are not risk-free, nicotine is highly addictive and can be harmful, and there are unanswered questions on the effects of longer-term use.
We have regulations in place to discourage underage vaping. The law protects children through restricting sales of vapes to over-18-year-olds only, limiting nicotine content, refill bottle and tank sizes, labelling requirements and through advertising restrictions.
In October 2022, we published new content on the potential risks of vaping for young people on the FRANK and Better Health websites and we have provided input to educational resources produced by partners including the PSHE Association. We are also developing a new resource pack for schools on vaping which will be made available before the end of the school year.
There is currently no evidence that young people move from using vapes to tobacco products, including cigarettes.