Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to ensure young people do not become addicted to e-cigarettes.

The Government has taken a precautionary approach and actively put in place measures to prevent initiation of e-cigarette use by children. These include legislation to restrict age of sale, proxy purchase and the advertising of e-cigarettes. In addition, the use of e-cigarettes is regularly monitored. To date, data shows no significant level of regular use in children.

Public Health England has published the guidance ‘Use of e-cigarettes in public places and workplaces’ which can be used locally by the National Health Service to set their policy on the use of e-cigarettes. This advice takes into account the current evidence on these products. The evidence base is kept under regular review as new data becomes available.