Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to tackle the sale of illegal vapes in Surrey Heath constituency.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will strengthen the enforcement of vape sales regulations by giving Ministers in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland the ability to introduce a licensing scheme for the retail sale of tobacco, vapes and nicotine products. The licensing scheme will support Trading Standards to crack down on rogue vape retailers. The Bill also enables the introduction of a new registration scheme for tobacco, vape and nicotine products sold on the United Kingdom market. This will help ensure products are compliant with product safety and standards requirements and will enable Trading Standards to remove non-compliant products from the market quickly and efficiently.

In 2025/26, we will invest £10 million of new funding in Trading Standards to enhance their work to tackle the illicit and underage sale of tobacco and vapes, and support the implementation of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.

The introduction of a new Vaping Products Duty in October 2026 will provide civil and criminal powers for HM Revenue and Customs to assess for duty and seize products and equipment used to produce or transport illicit vape products.