Electronic Cigarettes: Sales
(asked on 21st March 2024) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will publish a breakdown of the allocation of £3million government funding for Operation Joseph.
Operation Joseph was established to enforce the rules on vaping, and tackle illicit vapes and underage sales. It supplements work being undertaken by local authorities using existing local government funding. The £3 million of funding has been allocated over two years, from 2023/24 to 2024/25. A grant was provided to the National Trading Standards to commission specific areas of work, and to support local authorities. The following table shows the budget of each work area as of February 2024, as well as the total allocated:
Work Area | Budget |
Business Education | £88,800 |
Professional Training and Upskilling | £164,400 |
Intelligence and Data | £500,000 |
Supporting storage and disposal costs for local authority seizures | £600,000 |
Online test purchasing and website takedowns | £80,000 |
Market Surveillance and testing of vaping products | £140,000 |
Tackling the import of illegal vapes | £1,087,000 |
Programme Governance Communications and Evaluation | £281,000 |
Contingency | £58,800 |
Total Allocated | £3,000,000 |
Note: The figures shown are based on allocations in February 2024, and may be subject to change.