Scottish Public Health Minister has welcomed the introduction
of proposed legislation to ban the sale of tobacco products to
anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 and allow tougher measures
on vaping.
All governments in the UK agreed to bring forward a UK-wide
Tobacco and Vapes Bill as part of their response to the 4
Nations Creating a smokefree generation and tackling
youth vaping consultation.
The UK-wide legislation, introduced in Parliament today
(Wednesday 20 March) will gradually increase the age of sale,
making it an offence to sell tobacco products to anyone born on
or after 1 January 2009. This means that children born on or
after this date - those turning 15 this year and younger - will
never be able to buy cigarettes.
The Bill also includes new powers to regulate displays, contents,
flavours and retail packaging of vapes and nicotine products,
allowing restrictions to target flavours marketed at children and
to move vapes out of sight of children and away from products
like sweets.
It will also remove existing Scottish provisions which make it an
offence for a person under 18 to purchase tobacco products.
The Scottish Government has already published proposals to ban
the sale and supply of single-use vapes in Scotland using
existing environmental powers. If agreed by the Scottish
Parliament, this would come into effect on 1 April 2025.
Public Health Minister said:
“Scotland has been a world-leader on a range of tobacco control
measures, and while there has been a steady reduction in the
proportion of people smoking we know it still damages lives and
kills more than 8,000 people a year in Scotland. Smoking is a
huge burden on our NHS and social care services and contributes
significantly to health inequalities, which is why our goal is
for a tobacco-free Scotland by 2034.
“Research suggests that almost one in five young people have
tried vaping and we’re particularly concerned about how flavours
are used as an enticement to children and young people.
“We will now consider how to use these powers, if passed by
Westminster, with the consent of the Scottish Parliament, to
benefit public health. We will continue our four-nations approach
to avoid any unnecessary regulatory divergence and to offer more
certainty and for business and consistency for consumers. Powers
on vapes will be taken forward following further consultation and
engagement.
“In addition, we were the first government to commit to taking
action on single-use vapes and have now fulfilled our 2023
Programme for Government commitment to consult on measures to
tackle the environmental impact of single-use vapes.”
Background
In accordance with the Sewel Convention, the Bill will require
the legislative consent of the Scottish Parliament.
Smoking is the leading preventable cause of health inequalities
and costs the economy millions each year in lost productivity.
The Scottish Government has been clear that vapes should never be
used by children or adult non-smokers, but they are one of a
range of tools for adult smokers to quit smoking. We therefore
intend that refillable, reusable vapes will remain available,
alongside other tools for smoking cessation, including nicotine
patches and medication.
Tobacco and Vaping
Framework: Roadmap to 2034
In Scotland, there are existing Fixed Penalty Notice regimes for
the age of sale and proxy purchasing offences relating to the
sale of tobacco products, cigarette papers and vapes. Trading
Standards already have the ability to issue Fixed Penalty Notices
of £200 to retailers who breach age of sale restrictions. FPNs
are regularly utilised to enforce age of sale legislation. In
Scotland, over 500 FPNs for underage tobacco sales were issued
from 2015/16 to 2022/23, and nearly 200 FPNs for underage vape
sales were issued from 2017/18 to 2022/23.
