Tobacco and Vapes Bill

Viscount Hanworth Excerpts

2nd reading
Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Hanworth (Lab)]

My Lords, it is universally recognised that nicotine dependence is greatly harmful to the health of the individual and very costly to the state. The Explanatory Notes that accompany this Bill make that abundantly clear.

The issue has been addressed over many years by parliamentary legislation. There are hopeful signs that nicotine addiction has been declining throughout this period. About one in eight people in the UK—12.5%—are smokers, and the number has been declining since 1974, when systematic and detailed records were first compiled. Even with the present, much-diminished levels of smoking, the harm done by nicotine is immense. The campaign group ASH—Action on Smoking and Health—estimates that smoking currently costs England £21.8 billion per annum, which far exceeds the £8.8 billion in taxes paid in the year 2023-24 on the sales of tobacco.

There are stark differences in the incidence of the affliction among different groups in the population. Those most affected are the poorest members in society, and those suffering mental ill-health are among the most vulnerable. The physiological detriments of smoking are now well understood, and they are well represented in the statistics of illness and mortality. Most people who smoke do so with great regret, notwithstanding any tendency they may have to defend their right to smoke.

The attraction of smoking and the addiction to nicotine are also well understood. An effect of nicotine is to stimulate the release of endorphins—the body’s natural narcotics—and the dopamine hormone from the hypothalamus in the brain. Dopamine is popularly known as the “feel-good” hormone. A release of endorphins and dopamine is also an accompaniment of a healthy dose of exercise, which suggests that good habits can be as addictive as bad habits.

The link between cancer and smoking began to be established in the 1950s. After the Royal College’s recommendations in 1962, restrictions were placed on advertising, selling to children and smoking in public places. The taxes on tobacco were raised and information on the tar and nicotine content of tobacco products was mandated, and the sales began to fall continuously.

However, circumstances have been altered radically by the emergence of a new form of nicotine inhalation, described as vaping, which is deemed to be less injurious than smoking. The NHS website recommends a transition from smoking to vaping as a means of gradually overcoming a dependence on nicotine, but the full detriment of vaping has yet to be determined. Vaping also threatens to become the predominant means by which young people are induced into nicotine dependence.

The aspiration of the Government now is for a smoke-free Britain, and the present Bill imposes significant additional restrictions on nicotine products. Its most striking measure is the proposal to ban the sale of tobacco to people born on or after 1 January 2009, in the hope that future adult generations will never experience the affliction. The ban also applies to the sale of nicotine vapes to young people. In this connection, I appreciate the suggestion of the noble Lord, Lord Berkeley, that credit cards should convey information to enable easy age verification.

A ban on the sale and supply of single-use vapes in England will come into force on 1 June 2025. This was proposed both as an environmental measure to overcome the litter of disposable vapes and as a way of limiting the access of young people to vapes. Future legislation might limit the sale of nicotine vapes to those who have a medical certificate to indicate that they are endeavouring to overcome their nicotine addiction. To be effective, the measures of this Bill need to be buttressed by a vigorous inspection routine and stiff penalties for infringements. Education in schools concerning the detriment of nicotine must also be pursued.

Finally, there may be push-back by the manufacturers of vapes, of which there are a handful in this country. However, 90% on these items are manufactured in China, in the Shenzhen region. It is interesting to observe that China has banned the sale of fruity vapes in its own country, even though they are still exported to the UK. Fruity vapes have been envisaged as a way of inducing children into the vaping habit, and they must be banned.

Tobacco and Vapes Bill

Viscount Hanworth Excerpts

Committee stage
Monday 27th October 2025 Grand Committee

I hope that the Minister will give us a positive view of the potential use of this age-gating technology, which is increasingly likely to be used and available internationally, and say that it is something that the Government are positively looking to use. I hope that, if they do not accept these amendments at this stage, the Government will give a commitment to enter discussions before Report, either to take the explicit powers that are required or to bring forward their own amendments on Report to amend Clause 90 to incorporate such features and make it absolutely clear that this technology can be incorporated into point-of-use age verification in due course.

[Viscount Hanworth (Lab)]

My Lords, I wish to address one of the practical issues that has been raised. The noble Lord, Lord Lansley, talked about restrictions at the point of use and I wish to talk about restrictions at the point of sale.

The purpose of my Amendment 23 is to propose that, in the sale of vapes and tobacco products, verification of age should be achieved primarily by a date-of-birth tag carried by banker’s cards. The proposal is contained in subsection (2)(b) of the proposed new clause in the amendment. The rest of the text is an embellishment by a parliamentary draftsman, which serves perhaps to conceal the simple purpose of the amendment.

I observe that the majority of purchases by consumers are nowadays made with banker’s cards. I witnessed this in our local supermarket. The automatic tills used to dispense cash when payments that had been made with notes and coins exceeded the cost of the goods that were being purchased; such machines are being removed because they have become redundant.

The efficiency of the card-reading tills is impaired only by their inability to mediate the sale of alcohol. They halt the transactions and flash a signal whenever an attempt is made to purchase alcohol. A shop assistant hovers near the machines in order to assess whether the customer is old enough to purchase alcohol. My invariable comment when buying a bottle of wine is to ask why the machine is not smart enough to tell my age, which can be assessed at a glance by the assistant. Sometimes it invokes the fatuous response that I do not look a day older than 21.

Be that as it may, the difficulty and inconvenience could be overcome if banker’s cards were to incorporate an age tag. Such a tag would also serve for age verification, which, according to the Bill, should accompany the sale of tobacco products. It may be appropriate for me to give more details of what I am proposing. Tobacconists and sellers of vapes would be required by the terms of their licence to be equipped with a card reader that would send a signal if the card holder was underage.

Another, less convenient means of identification should be acceptable, such as passports and driving licences, and even the freedom passes that are issued by London councils to pensioners to allow them to travel freely on the public transport system. A doctor’s certificate might also be acceptable, in the case of a smoker attempting to quit the habit. However, the inconvenience of these alternatives should encourage a reliance on age verification via banker’s cards.

The system as described so far would not be proof against all evasions, but it could be elaborated to incorporate a system of inventory control, which would record both the items being added to the retailer’s stock and those sold to consumers. The sales of tobacco products could be recorded item by item via a till specially equipped for the purpose. That would be straightforward since, apart from legally imported items, all legitimate tobacco products carry a machine-readable barcode. The till would also create a record of cash sales, and the purchase of tobacco products by the retailer would be recorded, so you would have a complete inventory system there. A major disparity in the records between the retailer’s stock and their recorded sales could be investigated, and it might lead to a prosecution.

It has been claimed by those opposed to age verification accompanying the sale of tobacco that it would lead to conflicts between the retailer and their customers. I tend to discount that possibility. To any person attempting to purchase tobacco products using cash and providing no age verification, the retailer could say, “I cannot do this. It would lead to a prosecution”. Surely that ought to be enough. I imagine that similar circumstances arise in medical pharmacies when someone attempts to purchase a regulated medicine in the absence of a doctor’s prescription.

So far, I have been describing purchases of tobacco products that occur in shops, but I understand that an increasing proportion of purchases nowadays are made online by the internet. These are also mediated almost exclusively by banker’s cards, and it would be a simple matter for banks to identify the age of the customer when they attempt to pay for the goods. The bank should be mandated to block all purchases attempted by underage persons.

I listened to what the noble Lord, Lord Young, said about sales on the internet. I can agree with it, I think, but what I am proposing almost covers the issue in its entirety. I believe that the system I have outlined, whether or not it would become watertight through a rigorous inventory control, is the only viable system that would not greatly inconvenience the consumers of tobacco products—although it might be the intention to inconvenience such consumers. Be that as it may, I honestly believe that what I have outlined is the obvious way of achieving the Bill’s objectives. I would be most surprised if others have not proposed similar or identical systems; indeed, it surprises me that I am, to my mind, the only person who has made this obvious point.