MPs have overwhelmingly approved the Tobacco and Vapes Bill in its third reading in the House of Commons, with 366 voting in its favour, and just 41 against.
The Bill, which is now headed to the House of Lords, will effectively end smoking within a generation by banning anyone born prior from 1 January 2009 from ever being able to buy tobacco products.
Restrictions on the display and advertising of vapes, a new licensing scheme for retailers selling vape and tobacco products, and the ability to outlaw vape flavours that appeal to younger people are also contained in the Bill.
While smoking won’t be banned in pub gardens and other outdoor hospitality areas, the law allows the ban on smoking in children’s playgrounds, and outside hospitals and schools, to be outlawed subject to public consultation.
An open letter to the government written by a group of retailers said that tough rules on the in-store display of vapes risked “limiting our ability to communicate with adult consumers around safer nicotine products than cigarettes”, while also having the potential to allow “illicit trade and unregulated markets to continue to flourish”.
A spokesperson for vape firm Elfbar, meanwhile, warns that while the company supports some measures in the Bill, such as the retail licensing system, ministers should be cautious when deciding what flavours to outlaw. Eve Peters, Elfbar’s director of government says: “proportionate regulation, particularly on flavours, is essential for the government to avoid undermining its smokefree ambition”.
One amendment to the Bill that won’t be included as it passes through the House of Lords would have required individual vape devices to electronically liaise with a central database containing biometric data about the user to ensure they were over the age of 18. The government decided that this would have placed harsher restrictions on vaping than smoking, potentially making vapes less attractive to adults trying to quit smoking.
