Tobacco and Vapes Bill will also bars smoking and vaping in some outdoor spaces. File
| Photo Credit: AP

Legislation intended to ban today’s British children from ever legally being able to smoke began its journey through Parliament on Tuesday (November 5, 2024).

The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will also bars smoking and vaping in some outdoor spaces such as playgrounds and the entrances to schools and hospitals. But a proposed ban on smoking in pub beer gardens has been dropped after opposition from bar owners.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting said the hospitality industry had “taken a real battering in recent years” and it is not “the right time” to ban smoking outside pubs.

The bill also proposes to restrict vape flavors and ban bright vape packaging aimed at children, to combat “a cynical industry that has sought to addict a new generation of children to nicotine,” Mr. Streeting said.

It also continues a plan by the previous Conservative government, which was ousted in July’s general election, to raise the minimum age for buying tobacco by one year each year, so that no one born after Jan. 1, 2009 will ever be able to buy cigarettes.

It is currently illegal to sell cigarettes, tobacco products or vapes to people under 18.

If passed – as is likely because of the governing Labour Party’s large majority in Parliament — the bill will give Britain some of the toughest anti-smoking measures in the world.

The government said the bill “breaks the cycle of addiction and paves the way for a smoke-free U.K”.

The number of people who smoke in Britain has declined by two-thirds since the 1970s, but some 6.4 million people — or about 13% of the population — still smoke, according to official figures.

Authorities say smoking causes some 80,000 deaths a year in the U.K., and remains the number one preventable cause of death, disability and poor health.

The report recommends banning all disposable vape and non-tobacco flavour sales. Image for representation.
| Photo Credit: AP

Leading U.K. doctors urged the government Wednesday (August 28, 2024) to pass legislation to tackle “a vaping epidemic”, in particular among young people, by banning disposable e-cigarettes and all flavours apart from tobacco.

The call came alongside the publication of a British Medical Association (BMA) report which it said was a “blueprint” for the “bold actions needed”.

The previous Conservative government unveiled plans earlier this year to eventually phase out smoking, alongside banning disposable e-cigarettes and restricting their flavours and packaging.

The new Labour administration – which swept to power early last month – has revived the draft legislation but is yet to detail its exact approach.

The BMA report noted that vape use among children and young people has increased almost six-fold in the last decade.

It implored the government not to “shy away from taking brave action” in order to “stem the trend”.

“There is no denying we are living in a vaping epidemic,” Professor David Strain, chair of the BMA’s board of science, said in comments accompanying the report’s release.

He noted one in 10 ten adults now vape, while calling the six-fold increase in those aged between 11 and 17 who now vape “far more worrying”.

“As a doctor, I understand the role vapes can play in helping people to stop smoking, but they have no rightful place in our children and young people’s lives,” Mr. Strain added.

“An industry so obviously targeting children with colours, flavours and branding, to push a product that can lead to nicotine addiction and potential further harms cannot be allowed to happen any longer.”

The report recommends banning all disposable vape and non-tobacco flavour sales, as well as using imagery, colouring and branding on packaging and devices.

That would mirror current restrictions on cigarettes.

The BMA also wants curbs on advertising and marketing, and rules keeping vapes behind retail counters and not on display.

Meanwhile, it is recommending government education campaigns on the dangers of vapes to reduce their appeal, especially among youngsters.

“We are calling on ministers to take bold and brave actions that will make a real difference,” Penelope Toff, the BMA’s public health medicine committee head, said.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said marketing vapes to children and young people was “utterly unacceptable”.

The spokesperson said planned legislation will outlaw the practice while “regulating flavours, packaging, and changing how and where they are displayed in shops”.