Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what assessment she has made of HM Revenue and Custom’s readiness to implement the vaping products duty stamp scheme on schedule.

The Government is introducing Vaping Products Duty and the Vaping Duty Stamps scheme to make vaping less accessible to young people and non-smokers, while raising revenue to support vital public services, including the NHS and smoking cessation initiatives. The Vaping Duty Stamps scheme will provide HMRC with greater oversight of the vaping market and strengthen its ability to target fraud and criminality.

HMRC remains confident that both the Vaping Products Duty and the Vaping Duty Stamps scheme will go live on 1 October 2026.

However, recognising industry feedback that some businesses may struggle to implement all of the changes required by then, HMRC has recently decided to extend the "transitional stamp" arrangements of the scheme for an additional three months.

This means businesses who are not ready to use the full digital features of the scheme can instead use a highly secure stamp without digital elements until the end of the year. This will support legitimate businesses to meet their legal requirements. The full digital scheme will be in operation for businesses who are ready to integrate with it.

Every new vaping product must be duty paid and must carry either a transitional stamp or a digitally enhanced stamp from 1 October.