Parliament 2

The Shadow Secretary of State for Levelling Up, Kevin Hollinrake, asked the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government whether councils will be able to ban smoking in public places under the new byelaw powers.

Minister of State Jim McMahon told him: “The government will work with councils to determine how byelaws should be made and whether byelaw making powers should be extended to Strategic Authorities, as set out in the English Devolution White Paper.

“The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will extend smoke-free designation to outdoor places including outside schools, children’s playgrounds and hospitals but not to outdoor hospitality settings or wider open spaces like beaches.

“The proposed reforms under the Bill will be subject to a full consultation, and we want to hear the views of people from across the country on this to ensure we get it right. As drafted, the Bill does not give any additional powers to local authorities.”

Of course, they don’t seem as keen to hear from organisations representing the interests of vapers!

Labour/Co-operative MP Jo Platt asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care whether the Department is taking steps to regulate the advertising of vapes in local vape shops on high streets, “so that they do not appeal to children”.

The question has to be posed: seeing as vapes are only for sale to over-18s, surely the issue isn’t advertising within vape stores. Does Jo Platt seriously think these adult only retail units are targeting teens?

Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care Andrew Gwynne responded: “We know that vapes and other nicotine products are being deliberately branded and advertised to appeal to children. This must be stopped to protect future generations from being hooked on nicotine.”

Do we? Is that what we know?

He continued: “The Tobacco and Vapes Bill has been introduced to Parliament, and bans vapes and nicotine products from being deliberately promoted and advertised to children to stop the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine. The bill will ban all forms of advertising of vaping and other nicotine products, including in local vape shops, as well as sponsorship agreements which promote them.”

“We must also reduce the visibility and accessibility of vapes to protect children and non-smokers from getting hooked on nicotine. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will provide powers to introduce future regulations on where and how vapes and other nicotine products can be displayed, including in the windows and inside local vape shops.”

What price the misunderstandings about vaping among adult smokers continues to grow?

Defence Committee Chair Tan Dhesi then asked the Home Office what estimate has been made of the number of illegal vapes seized at the border in 2023 and 2024.

The Home Department’s Minister of State, Angela Eagle, let him know: “Border Force have a strong track record in targeting illegal commodities, and continue to ensure that all goods brought into the UK by passengers are appropriately declared and abide by customs and excise rules.”

Then Eagle pointed him to ‘do your own research’ with the Border Force transparency data. Clearly forming a joke at Tan Dhesi’s expense, the transparency data contains no information about illegal vape seizures.

All told, a pretty miserable set of exchanges.

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.