Tobacco and Vapes Bill: Clause 16

Ever one for the anecdote, Dr Caroline Johnson began by informing the House that it was her daughter’s and her son’s science teacher’s birthday. Who said you don’t ever learn anything interesting from these articles?

Clause 16 provides the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care with the power to make regulations on the granting of personal and premises licences. It establishes a licensing system for the sale, storage, exposure and supply of tobacco, vaping and nicotine products in England and outlines the requirement for individuals and businesses involved in the retail of those products to hold specific licences.

Clause 16 is a good thing. The contents of this clause are something the industry has been demanding for close on two years – something successive Governments and Health Secretaries ignored. Something that, if it had been implemented a lot earlier, would have eliminated the need for a lot of the contents of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill as the market would have been regulated tighter.

Caroline Johnson said: “Clause 16 effectively creates a licensing framework to monitor and enforce sale practices. That is important, because we have heard evidence—and seen for ourselves when we walk down the street—that virtually every shop, whatever it sells otherwise, sells vapes. The clause will help to reduce the number of outlets selling those products and ensure that they are being sold responsibly and only to those above the age of sale.”

Virtually every shop? This will come as news to Greggs, McDonalds, Bewitched Coffee, Barclays Bank and Waterstones. Kettering also has a Geek game shop, Peacocks clothing shop, Cancer Research UK, an Asian fusion restaurant and…oh, you get the picture. In fact, apart from VPZ and The Vape Shop, the High Street is pretty vape-free.

Such was the support from Conservatives for the vape licensing scheme during the debate that you might wonder why they objected to it so often and strongly when they were in office?

Labour’s Tristan Osborne wondered whether a licensing scheme was appropriate for online businesses.

Andrew Gwynne indicated the Government intended to make all retailers require a licence for selling vapes, online and bricks & mortar.

Johnson held forth at length on the situation with regards to Wales and Northern Ireland. Scotland already has a system “up and running.”

Jack Rankin, Conservative, said: “In my remarks to date, I have tried to support responsible vaping businesses, which I think are legitimate, and to champion vaping as a smoking cessation tool. These clauses are not in contradiction of that principle. We should support better efforts to regulate the vape market and in particular to stop youth access. Introducing the licensing concept for vapes is consistent with the Government’s intent and the principles that I wish to support.”

Sarah Bool MP added: “The licensing scheme has been welcomed across the board, which is interesting.”

She then referred to a submission by Evapo, which stated: “The licensing scheme should charge retailers £750 per store per year: Licences for over 55,000 convenience and vaping stores could raise upwards of £50 million, more than enough to fund Trading Standards’ enforcement of these new laws. A manageable fee for retailers would incentivise good actor participation, while disincentivising bad actor behaviour. It would also make it more cost effective to follow the law, stymieing rogue traders from shrugging off rare fines to sell illegal, dangerous products to underage people.”

Evapo also call for a minimum of two annual mystery shopper activities per store, paid for from the money raised.

“That would be a good way of ensuring that the legislation is working in practice,” added Sarah Bool.

Parliamentary Under-Secretary Andrew Gwynne then thanked everyone for their contributions to the debates, concluding: “Introducing a licensing scheme will strengthen enforcement of the law, acting as a deterrent to rogue retailers who breach sales regulations, supporting legitimate businesses and ultimately supporting public health outcomes.”

Photo Credit:

• Author generated image using Grok

Dave Cross

Journalist at POTV

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Dave 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.