Plans to ban smoking for the next generation of young people and crackdown on vaping in the UK have cleared a major hurdle.
MPs voted overwhelmingly in favour of the “historic” Tobacco and Vapes Bill at its second reading in the Commons on Tuesday, with 415 for and 47 against.
The proposed legislation will now continue to the Committee and Report stages, where it will undergo further scrutiny before MPs vote on it again at a later date.
Send your views
The government is calling for people with “relevant expertise and experience or a special interest in the Bill” to provide their views in writing. The sooner you send in your submission, the more time the Committee will have to take it into account.
The first sitting of the Public Bill Committee is expected to be on Tuesday 7 January 2025 and the Committee will report the Bill by 5pm on Thursday 30 January 2025.
Your views along with any relevant evidence should be sent to scrutiny@parliament.uk. Further guidance on what to include can be found here. You might want to explain, for example, how vaping helped you to quit smoking and how the Bill as it stands would affect you.
How we got here
The Tobacco and Vapes Bill was originally drafted under former Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, but had to be dropped when a snap general election was called.
Plans to re-introduce the plans under the new Labour government were announced in the King’s Speech in July. The Bill passed its first reading in the Commons earlier this month.
What does the Bill include?
The most ambitious part of the new legislation is a generational ban on smoking. The UK would become the first country in the world to make it illegal for anyone born in 2009 or after to ever buy cigarettes or tobacco.
The legal smoking age would be raised by one year every year in a bid to stop today’s young people from ever taking up smoking, creating “the first smoke-free generation.”
The Government will also be given powers to extend the existing indoor smoking ban to some outdoor settings such as children’s playgrounds, and outside schools and hospitals.
Smoking is the number one preventable cause of death, disability and ill health in the UK. It causes around 80,000 deaths a year, one in four of all cancer deaths and kills up to two-thirds of its long-term users. Smoking also costs the country’s economy and wider society £21.8 billion a year. Globally, smoking kills eight million people per year, including around 1.3 million non-smokers who inhale secondhand smoking.
Vaping, meanwhile, is proven not to be associated with any tobacco-related illnesses.
What will the Bill mean for vaping?
The Bill also clamps down on vaping, with the aim of making it less accessible and appealing to children and young people.
It proposes a ban on e-liquid flavours that are considered to have “youth appeal” or are “targeted at minors.” This includes sweet flavours like cotton candy, bubble gum, gummy bear, cola and dessert, but also fruit, which is the most popular among smokers trying to quit.
Manufacturers of vapes will be required to use plain, “less visually appealing” packaging and shops will have to move them out of sight of children and away from products that might appeal to them such as sweets and chocolate. Advertising and sponsorship of vapes, as well as selling them in vending machines, will also be banned.
The Bill will introduce a new on-the-spot fine of £200 to help Trading Standards officers clamp down on offences such as under age sales.
Disposable vapes are to be banned from June 1, 2025, but this is under separate legislation brought by the Department for Food, the Environment and Rural Affairs.
What’s next?
Before it officially becomes law, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill will have to pass through a lengthy process in the Commons and the Lords where it will be debated and scrutinised by MPs and peers.
During this period there is potential for the Bill to be watered down, or for it to be strengthened.
Now it has passed its second reading, the Bill will progress to the Committee stage where detailed examination will take place. This usually starts within two weeks of the second reading.
It will then move to the Report stage, where MPs have the opportunity, on the floor of the Commons, to consider further changes. Following this, MPs get the chance to vote again at a third reading.
If the Bill passes these stages in the Commons, it then has to go through the same process in the Lords before receiving royal assent and finally becoming law.
Fears the Bill could backfire
While the new restrictions on vapes are aimed at curbing their appeal to children, vape advocates and some health bodies have warned they could put smokers off quitting and lead to a boom in black market sales.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) told ministers earlier this month that the disposables ban alone could push nearly a third (29 per cent) of vapers back to smoking.
And separate research released by vape brand Elfbar this week reveals around 2.3 million vapers in the UK (41 per cent) could return to smoking because of the new Bill.
