House of Commons
Vaping and tobacco harm reduction issues have been discussed in the House of Commons
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by Dave Cross
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Lyn Brown, the Shadow Minister for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, asked the Secretary of State for Education what assessment has been made of the effect of vaping on children’s concentration and attainment at school.
Nick Gibb, the Minister of State for Education, told her: “Schools are required by law to have a behaviour policy that sets out what is expected of all pupils, including what items are banned from school premises.
“Schools have the autonomy to decide which items should be banned from their premises, and these can include e-cigarettes or vapes. School staff can search pupils for banned items, as outlined in the Department’s ‘Searching, screening and confiscation at school’ guidance.
“The relationships and sex education and health education statutory guidance states that, in both primary and secondary school, pupils should be taught the facts about legal and illegal harmful substances and associated risks, including smoking, alcohol use, and drug-taking.
“To support schools to deliver this content effectively, the Department has published a suite of teacher training modules, including one on drugs, alcohol and tobacco, which makes specific reference to e-cigarettes and vaping.”
Anyone looking strangely at Lyn Brown for posing the question will have kept the same face up for Gibb’s wholesale inability to reply to the question and yet use so many words.
Labour’s Rachael Maskell asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care if he will make it policy to require all vape devices to be sold in plain colour.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care Neil O'Brien averted giving any answer, saying that it is still “being prepared”.
O'Brien delivered the same response when Maskell asked him if it might become policy to introduce plain packaging for vaping devices – the lack of answers for these two questions raises the worrying spectre that they might actually happen as a result of the Government’s recent fact-finding exercise.
Maskell also asked if it might become policy to ban the use of vaping devices in vehicles that contain children. Given that a similar approach to smoking in vehicles has been an abject failure, it is troubling that Neil O'Brien didn’t rule the possibility out.
DUP Spokesperson for International Development, Greg Campbell asked the Secretary of State whether the Tobacco Control Plan's aim to deliver the ambition of a smoke-free society by 2030 includes vaping.
Quite why Campbell thinks the government should be attempting to eliminate a route out of smoking wasn’t explained.
Neil O'Brien told him emphatically: “The ambition for England to be Smokefree by 2030 covers smoking prevalence only. It does not cover the prevalence of vaping” – but they might achieve it anyway if they implement bans on packaging, colours, flavours, disposables and vaping in cars!
Tory Matthew Offord completes today’s piece by asking the Secretary of State a whole series of questions:
- What companies are providing vaping devices for the Swap to stop scheme?
- What the value is of each contract with companies under the Swap to stop scheme.
- What vaping devices are included in the Swap to stop scheme.
- What the timeframe is for the roll-out of the Swap to stop scheme.
Neil O'Brien continued with his aversion to delivering any detail on things we’d like to know more about by saying: “The national ‘Swap to stop’ scheme is currently in development and more details will be available in due course.”
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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