Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what his policy is on the advertising of e-cigarettes on television.

Advertising of e-cigarettes is subject to controls overseen by the Advertising Standards Authority, who are the United Kingdom's regulator of advertising across all media, including marketing on websites. The Committee of Advertising Practice and the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice, who are the bodies responsible for writing and maintaining the advertising codes, recently issued guidance to the advertisers of e-cigarettes to help them fully comply with the current rules.

The Revised Tobacco Products Directive will come into force in May 2016. From that time it will be illegal to advertise e-cigarettes, other than those licenced by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, on television in the UK.