ASH Scotland urges the new UK Government to commit to reintroducing Tobacco and Vapes Bill in the King’s Speech

ASH Scotland is urging the new UK Government to commit to reintroducing the Tobacco and Vapes Bill during the King’s Speech today (Wednesday 17 July 2024), and work to eradicate the damage that profit-centred multi-national tobacco corporations are inflicting on people’s lives.

The health charity has written to the new Prime Minister, Sir Keir Starmer, to encourage him to urgently reintroduce the UK-wide Tobacco and Vapes Bill, which proposed changing the law to prevent anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 from being sold tobacco. This would mean tobacco being progressively and incrementally cleared from retail space, as well as no longer making it an offence in Scotland for under-age customers to purchase the addictive, health harming substance.

ASH Scotland wants a reintroduced Bill to maintain previously proposed powers for the UK Government to make UK-wide regulations, with consent required from the Scottish Government, to restrict the flavours, contents, retail packaging and product requirements of e-cigarettes to tackle the youth vaping epidemic. The continued inclusion of powers enabling Ministers at Holyrood to make provisions about tobacco warning notices and to regulate retail displays of e-cigarettes and other nicotine products is also recommended.

Sheila Duffy, Chief Executive of ASH Scotland, said: “We have called on the Prime Minister to commit to immediately reintroducing the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. It is vital that the new UK Government hits the ground running if we are to continue driving down use of tobacco, which is the biggest preventable killer in Scotland, causing more than 8,000 deaths a year.

“Tobacco industry promotions have lured youngsters into starting to use their addictive, harmful products for decades and the same is happening with e-cigarettes, so we need both the UK Government and the Scottish Government to work at pace to stop the targeted marketing of sweet flavoured, brightly coloured vapes and packaging aimed at children, by supporting the introduction of strong measures as a matter of urgency to protect the health of young people and enable Scotland to attain a tobacco-free generation by 2034.”

ASH Scotland supports the World Health Organisation’s call on governments to take urgent regulatory action, following mounting evidence of adverse health impacts and studies consistently showing that young people who use e-cigarettes are up to three times at greater risk of starting to smoke tobacco.

Most vapes contain high levels of nicotine, which is very addictive, as well as toxic chemicals that have not been safety tested for inhaling and can damage lungs over time.

The Scottish health charity is advocating for measures to make e-cigarettes flavourless and for the standardisation of vaping device designs and packaging preventing imagery, colours, descriptors and branding, to reduce the attractiveness of the products to children.