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 help prevent the illegal sale of e-cigarettes to people aged under 18.

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, and through labelling requirements and advertising restrictions. 

The Government provides funding to local authorities in support of local trading standards activity. On 11 April 2023, we announced £3 million of funding for a new national illicit vaping enforcement unit to tackle illicit and underage vape sales across the country.