House of Lords
Vaping and tobacco harm reduction have been discussed in the House of Lords
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by Dave Cross
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Lord Storey, the Liberal Democrat Lords Spokesperson for Education, asked His Majesty's Government how many retailers have been prosecuted for selling disposable vapes to children.
Lord Bellamy, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Justice, replied: “The Ministry of Justice publishes information on prosecutions, convictions and sentence outcomes in the Outcomes by Offence data tool, including offences as set out in the Offence Group Classification. This includes the number of prosecutions for offences contrary to regulations under the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 and the sale of tobacco to person under 18 years of age.
“However, whether this was specifically regarding the sale of disposable vapes to children is not held centrally in the Court Proceedings Database. This information may be held on court records but to examine individual court records would incur disproportionate costs.”
Then,
Lord Storey followed up by asking the Government what assessment has been made of the increasing number of children and young people vaping. Also, he wanted to know what consideration has been given to banning the sale of flavoured vapes, “which may be attractive to children and young people”.
Lord Markham responded: “The Government assessment is that youth vaping has increased. Over the past decade, the use of vapes by children has been consistently low. However, data collected in NHS Digital’s Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England survey showed that in 2021 9% of 11 to 15 year old children currently used e-cigarettes, up from 6% in 2018.
“It is illegal to sell nicotine vapes to children and we are concerned about the recent rises in youth vaping, particularly because of the unknown long-term harms. To address this the government announced in April a call for evidence on youth vaping and £3 million of additional funding through the creation of an illicit vapes enforcement squad to tackle underage sales.
“At the end of May the Prime Minister made a further announcement to close a loophole that allows industry from giving out free samples, increase education and to support the dedicated school police liaison officers to keep illegal vapes out of schools, and review both on the spot fines and underage sales for non-nicotine vapes.
“Our youth vaping call for evidence closed on the 6 June. This call explored a range of issues and asked questions related to the appeal of vapes to children. We are analysing responses and the evidence to identify opportunities to reduce the number of children accessing and using vape products. This will include an assessment of the appeal of flavours. We will publish the response early this autumn to outline our next steps.”
The fact that the Government are now at the stage of considering action on eLiquid flavours is troubling and marks a substantial shift from when it lent its unequivocal support to everything vaping.
Photo Credit:
HOC Image by Dan Johnston from Pixabay
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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