Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if his Department will put restrictions in place to prevent the promotion of e-cigarettes to people under the age of 16 years.

The revised Tobacco Products Directive (Directive 2014/40/EU) will prohibit the advertising of e-cigarettes marketed as consumer electronic products where there is a cross-border dimension, for example television, radio, newspapers and magazines. The Department will consult on the transposition of the Directive into United Kingdom law and seek views on the need for domestic provisions on advertising.

It was not possible to achieve age of sale controls through the revised Directive so the Government has already moved quickly to take regulation-making powers for Ministers in England and Wales to prohibit the sale of e-cigarettes to under-18s, through the Children and Families Act. In England, we plan to bring this new law into effect within the current Parliament.