Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent steps his Department has taken to tackle the sale of (a) illegal and (b) unregulated vaping products to children and young people.

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will strengthen enforcement and crack down on rogue retailers selling illegal and unregulated vape products to children and young people. The bill introduces new £200 fixed penalty notices in England and Wales for certain tobacco and vape offences, including underage sales, enables the introduction of a retail licensing scheme in England, Wales, and Northern Ireland, and enables the introduction of a new registration scheme for tobacco, vape, and nicotine products sold in the United Kingdom’s market.

The Government is investing £10 million of new funding in 2025/26 into Trading Standards, to support the enforcement of illicit and underage tobacco and vape sales in England, and to support the implementation of the measures in the bill. This funding is being used to boost the Trading Standards workforce by recruiting approximately 80 new apprentices. The new funding will also support the storage and recycling of seized illicit vapes, the additional work to identify and seize illicit vape consignments at ports, and the training of Trading Standards officers on the new single use vapes ban.

The devolved administrations will need to fund the delivery of the devolved measures in the bill for their nations. The Barnett formula will apply in the usual way, and it is for the devolved administrations to allocate their funding in devolved areas as they see fit.

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