The Lords Debate

Baroness Merron, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care, began the debate by saying: “The evidence, despite perhaps some lingering myths and misperceptions, remains stark and compelling: smoking remains unequivocally the number one preventable cause of death, disability and ill health in our nation. Progress has been made, but this is not a problem of the past. Smoking continues to cast a long shadow over our society, remaining a significant public health challenge with persistent rates of prevalence. Every year we witness the loss of approximately 80,000 lives in the UK directly attributed to smoking.”

It would be natural to think that such a stance would support tobacco harm reduction and vaping unequivocally, but she said vapes present “a nuanced challenge”.

“Vapes are less harmful than smoking and absolutely have a strong role to play as a cessation aid for adult smokers seeking to quit. In fact, clients of stop smoking services who have used a vape to quit have had the highest success rate of any group. Nevertheless, a concerning increase in youth uptake should not be ignored. In 2023, one in four children aged 11 to 15 tried vaping, often drawn in through appealing sweet-like flavours and colourful packaging.”

Why 2023? Well, because the same survey in 2024 did not support such a despairing position.

“We will ban advertising and sponsorship, and implement regulations concerning the flavours, descriptions, ingredients, packaging and point-of-sale displays of these products,” she pledged.

Despite saying “it is imperative that the Bill strikes a necessary balance”, the Bill will absolutely make vapes less appealing to adults, banning aspects that are essential for vaping to work as a smoking cessation tool.

Responding for the Conservatives, Earl Howe, Shadow Deputy Leader of the House of Lords, commented: “This Bill bears the same name as the one introduced by the previous Government and shares many of the same features. It is nevertheless substantially different.”

Concerning Earl Howe the most is the overreach of the Bill he finds “most egregious”.

“The Bill before us contains no fewer than 66 delegated powers, which is double the number present in the previous iteration. This should concern us. Whether one supports the main principles of the Bill or not, it cannot be right to condone a legislative model that leaves large swathes of policy areas with scant detail to be amplified later by ministerial decision.”

Such areas include the ability for Ministers to ban any flavoured eliquid they care to.

“The Bill also includes the power to restrict the flavour of nicotine products, and the Government have signalled that they are considering banning certain flavours of vaping liquids. On the face of it, this may seem a reasonable proposal, bearing in mind the troubling rise in youth vaping. The problem here, though, is one of perverse consequences. There is increasingly strong evidence that access to a variety of flavours is a key factor contributing to smokers making the switch to vaping and then not going back to cigarettes,” he said.

Earl Howe pointed to evidence submitted by Louise Ross, who launched the world’s first stop smoking service. She said: “Flavours are really important to adult users of the products, whether new users or those who are staying smokefree with a vape”.

She added that those who use vaping products report it is flavours that “stopped them from going back to cigarettes, which they found tasted terrible after a few weeks of vaping”.

Earl Howe added: “Evidence of that kind should give us pause, before we go hurtling into a ban on what some see as no more than a tempting gimmick to trap unsuspecting teenagers.”

Baroness Northover, Liberal Democrat spokesperson, ignored that comment, stating: “If the industry had provided vapes simply as a means to enable people to stop smoking, that would have been fine. But it did not. It made vapes attractive to young people, with flavours and bright covers. It targeted them with nicotine levels that got them hooked. Vapes should never have been sold to those who do not smoke. I have seen this with close young relatives. It is cool to use vapes. You see this on the bus, at the school gates, everywhere.”

Anecdote over evidence – this is not the basis for sound policy formation.

In response to the debate, Action on Smoking and Health said: “The Tobacco and Vapes Bill was debated in the House of Lords for the first time. Many peers shared their powerful lived experience in support of the Bill alongside their support for the policies it contains.

“This debate reflected broad cross-party support for the Bill and shared objectives to protect young people, reduce health inequalities, and hold the tobacco industry accountable. Powerful personal testimonies underscored the urgent need for bold preventative measures.

“ASH looks forward to supporting peers as the Bill moves to Committee stage for what will no doubt be a [SIC] exceptionally well-informed and lively debate!”

When ASH refers to Lords sharing their lived experience, it means it is congratulating them for putting opinion in front of facts and evidence.

UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) Director General John Dunne was in Westminster for the Second Reading of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill in the House of Lords.

The trade body said: “The UKVIA has proposed a number of amendments to ensure that the new legislation has the necessary teeth to effectively deal with those who break the law, while ensuring that sufficient measures are in place to allow the legitimate vape industry to continue to reach as many adult smokers as possible.

“Smoking kills 220 people in the UK every single day and the message is not getting through to our six million smokers that vaping is a vastly less harmful alternative to cigarettes.”

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill now moves to the Lords Committee Stage where the individual clauses will be looked at, debated and changes to be voted on proposed.

References:

The debate - https://hansard.parliament.uk/lords/2025-04-23/debates/194F33CA-4BAA-4194-9988-E819BC49996C/TobaccoAndVapesBill

Photo Credit:

• Photo by Nancy Hughes on Unsplash, resized

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.