Scottish Government Confirms Ban
Catching up with recent news, the Scottish government has confirmed the details of the disposable vape ban due to be implemented in 2025
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by Dave Cross
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Catching up with recent news, the Scottish government has confirmed the details of the disposable vape ban due to be implemented in 2025. It published its response to the consultation on details surrounding the introduction of a ban on single-use vaping products, providing “clarity on their views on the definition of a disposable vape, as well as more information about the way that the rules will be enforced.”
The Scottish Government says: “We received 86 responses to this consultation. Of these, 40 responded as individuals and 46 on behalf of an organisation. The United Kingdom is a party to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Of particular relevance to the proposed ban is Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention. The Scottish Government is committed to protecting the development of public health policy and tobacco control generally from the commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry, ensuring compliance with the UK’s international obligations when pursuing policies in devolved areas.”
The Scottish government went on to add: “11 respondents had direct links to the tobacco industry, 8 had indirect links and 67 had no links.
“We would consider a direct link to be a person, company, or organisation who receives funding directly from the tobacco industry, or an organisation which has tobacco companies as members. We would consider an indirect link to be any person, company, or organisation who derives any form of indirect benefit from the tobacco industry – this would include retailers who sell tobacco products, or anyone who receives gifts, services, or hospitality from tobacco companies.
“Where responses from organisations with links to the tobacco industry have been included in this consultation analysis, their links to the tobacco industry have been highlighted.
“In accordance with the requirements of article 5.3 of the FCTC, we have not considered the views of those with links to the tobacco industry when determining our policy response and amendments to the draft Regulations, due to the vested interests of the tobacco industry. In the interests of accountability and transparency it is our intention publish and make publicly available the responses of those respondents in due course.”
It stated that a number of responses highlighted the need for adequate funding for local authorities to enforce the ban.
ACS chief executive James Lowman is quoted as saying: "We support the Scottish Government’s commitment to making enforcement as straightforward and effective as possible, but we have raised concerns a number of times that the overall £30m enforcement budget is being stretched extremely thin to cover not just Trading Standards, but also HMRC and Border Force activity across the UK.
“Research and modelling from Trading Standards experts demonstrates a need for a huge increase in enforcement funding for this policy to be effective, which we will continue to call for to ensure that the illicit trade doesn’t get an unintended boost from a disposable vapes ban.”
The full published response is available to read here.
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Photo by chris robert on Unsplash
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.
