Retailers react to disposable vape ban.
Posted on in Business News
The retail sector has been responding to government plans to ban disposable vapes as part of plans to tackle the rise in youth vaping.
New powers will be introduced to restrict flavours which are specifically marketed at children and ensure that manufacturers produce plainer, less visually appealing packaging. The powers will also allow government to change how vapes are displayed in shops, moving them out of sight of children and away from products that appeal to them like sweets.
The government has said it will also bring in new fines for shops in England and Wales which sell vapes illegally to children. Trading standards officers will be empowered to act ‘on the spot’ to tackle underage tobacco and vape sales. This builds on a maximum £2,500 fine that local authorities can already impose.
The government will also be able to mandate that shops display refillable vapes out of sight of children and away from other products they might buy, like sweets.
Health Secretary Victoria Atkins told the BBC she was confident the new bill would pass Parliament later this year with it coming into force in early 2025.
Retailers will be given six months to comply with the new regulations.
The measure coincides with the new law will make it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.
Muntazir Dipoti, the National President of the Federation of the Independent Retailers (the Fed), said:
“While we agree that action is needed to prevent children and young people being attracted to vaping, we do not believe that banning disposable vapes is the way to go about it,” he said.
“An outright ban will simply send youngsters towards unorthodox and illicit sources where there is no compliance to tobacco and vaping laws, while the products they peddle are likely to contain dangerous and illegal levels of toxic chemicals.
“Disposable vapes are usually more affordable and, as such, are a bigger incentive for adult smokers to change to vapes.”
To clamp down on young people vaping, the government needed to make more financial resources available for educational campaigns, while more enforcement activity was required, especially at borders to prevent counterfeit products entering the market, Dipoti continued.
Meanwhile, the introduction of a disposal scheme – like the deposit return scheme being planned for single use drinks containers – would better address the government’s concerns on the environmental impact that these products have.
Dipoti explained: “Vape retailers are responsible and offer a recycling option, but the government should be looking at making available more ways to safely recycle disposable vapes.”