Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what data his Department holds on the uptake of (a) cigarettes, (b) vapes, (c) HTPs and d) nicotine pouches by young people in each of the last five years.

The Department does not hold this information in the format requested. However, we can estimate the change in vape and smoking use amongst young people, between 2018-2021, using the data available in the Smoking, Drinking and Drug use publication, which is available at the following link:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/smoking-drinking-and-drug-use-among-young-people-in-england/2021

Unfortunately, we cannot estimate this for HTPs or nicotine pouches as we do not hold this data.

The number of children aged 11 to 15 years who currently smoke cigarettes is at 101,189 (3.3%), down from 2018 where 159,240 children were current smokers (5%). The number of children in the same age group who currently use vapes (e-cigarettes) is 288,159, (8.6%), up from 188,332 (5.9%) in 2018.

Survey data from Action on Smoking and Health on youth vaping from 2023 in Great Britain shows similar trends related to youth smoking and youth vaping. The data is available at the following link:

https://ash.org.uk/resources/view/use-of-e-cigarettes-among-young-people-in-great-britain