Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether it is his Department's policy to reduce the availability of disposable vapes.

Nicotine vapes, including disposables, are regulated through the Tobacco and Related Product Regulations 2016. These regulations protect children through restricting the sale of vapes to only people over the age of 18, limiting nicotine content, refill bottle and tank sizes, labelling requirements and through advertising restrictions.

Every nicotine vape packet contains a health warning. Vapes can also only be advertised in certain media and with certain restrictions. More information on these restrictions is available at the following link:

https://www.asa.org.uk/type/non_broadcast/code_section/22.html

While vaping is a preferable alternative to smoking for adults, we are concerned about the rise in youth vaping, particularly the increasing use of disposable vapes and the unknown long-term harms. Given the recent increases, the Government recently ran a call for evidence to identify opportunities to reduce the number of children accessing and using vaping products.

The Government is currently considering a range of options based on the evidence provided, including potential changes to vaping policy and regulation. We intend to respond to the call for evidence in the coming weeks.