Creating A Smokefree Generation And Tackling Youth Vaping - Your Views

28th November 2023

Smoking is the single most entirely preventable cause of ill health, disability, and death in the UK. It is responsible for around 80,000 deaths a year, including about

64,000 deaths per year in England (as reported by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities in Local tobacco control profiles).

8,300 deaths per year in Scotland (as reported by the Scottish Public Health Observatory's information on smoking attributable deaths).

5,600 deaths per year in Wales (as reported by the Public Health Wales Smoking in Wales report).

2,200 deaths per year in Northern Ireland (as reported by the Northern Ireland Department of Health's tobacco control information).

No other consumer product kills up to two-thirds of its users. The Office for National Statistics' Adult smoking habits in the UK 2022 reported that 6.4 million people in the UK were current smokers. This was 12.9% of people in the UK, and:

12.7% in England
14.1% in Wales
14.0% in Northern Ireland
13.9% in Scotland
Smoking causes harm throughout people's lives, not only for the smoker but for those around them. It is a major risk factor for poor maternal and infant outcomes, significantly increasing the chance of stillbirth and can trigger asthma in children. Smoking causes around 1 in 4 of all UK cancer deaths and is responsible for the great majority of lung cancer cases. Smoking is also a major cause of premature heart disease, stroke and heart failure, and increases the risk of dementia in the elderly. Smokers lose an average of 10 years of life expectancy, or around 1 year for every 4 smoking years.

As a result, smoking puts significant pressure on the NHS. In England, almost every minute of every day someone is admitted to hospital because of smoking, and up to 75,000 GP appointments could be attributed to smoking each month - equivalent to over 100 appointments every hour.

That is why, on 4 October 2023, the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) published a command paper Stopping the start: our new plan to create a smokefree generation setting out proposed action to protect future generations from the harms of smoking by creating the first smokefree generation, which the UK Government and devolved administrations are now seeking to consult on.

Devolved administrations is a collective term for the executive bodies in Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales: the Northern Ireland Executive, the Scottish Government and the Welsh Government.

The command paper also set out measures to crack down on youth vaping. The Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) report Use of e-cigarettes among young people in Great Britain shows that the number of children using vapes has tripled in the past 3 years and a staggering 20.5% of children in Great Britain had tried vaping in 2023. According to the Northern Ireland Young persons behaviour and attitudes survey 2022, 21.3% of 11 to 16 year olds in Northern Ireland reported having ever used an e-cigarette.

Due to nicotine content and the unknown long-term harms, vaping carries risks to health and lifelong addiction for children. The health advice is clear: young people and people who have never smoked should not vape.

The UK Government and devolved administrations have a duty to protect our children from the potential harms associated with underage vaping, while their lungs and brains are still developing. So, the UK Government and devolved administrations are consulting on several proposals on youth vaping including:

restricting flavours
regulating point of sale displays
regulating packaging and presentation
considering restricting the supply and sale of disposable vapes
whether regulations should extend to non-nicotine vapes
taking action on the affordability of vapes
These will need to balance having the biggest impact on youth vaping with ensuring vapes continue to support adult smokers to quit.

The command paper also focused on new measures to ensure the law is enforced. Underage and illicit sales of tobacco, and more recently vapes, are undermining the work of the UK Government and devolved administrations to regulate the industry and protect public health. In England and Wales, the government is seeking to introduce new powers for local authorities to issue fixed penalty notices (on the spot fines) to clamp down on those irresponsibly selling tobacco products and vapes to underage people.

Consultation overview
The consultation asks questions in 3 areas for which new legislation would be needed:

Creating a smokefree generation: on smoking, the case for change is clear and the UK Government and devolved administrations are consulting on the smokefree generation policy and its scope to inform future legislation.
Tackling youth vaping: while there is also significant evidence for action to tackle youth vaping, within each proposal the UK Government and devolved administrations are consulting on several options to ensure we take the most appropriate and impactful steps, building on England's analysis of the youth vaping call for evidence.
Enforcement: the consultation also asks questions on the proposal to introduce new powers for local authorities in England and Wales to issue fixed penalty notices to enforce age of sale legislation of tobacco products and vapes.
The UK Government and devolved administrations would like to understand the impacts on businesses and on people, and if there are any impacts on groups with protected characteristics (see Discrimination: your rights). We want to hear from:

the public - from young people, parents, carers and teachers
the retail sector and the independent vaping industry
local authorities across the UK
clinicians and medical professionals
public health stakeholders and academic experts
employers and trade unions
The UK Government and devolved administrations would like to receive as much detail as possible under each of the themes of the consultation. For each multiple choice question, you will be able to provide additional information and evidence to support your answer through free text boxes.

The UK Government and devolved administrations will only make any decisions on these proposed measures after fully considering:

the consultation responses we receive
the evidence provided in those responses
a further review of the international evidence base
Following this, impact assessments will be published.

The UK Government, Scottish Government and Welsh Government intend to bring forward legislation as soon as possible. In Northern Ireland, the outcome of this consultation will inform decisions of incoming ministers and the Northern Ireland Executive, or in the absence of ministers, those decisions that can be taken under the Northern Ireland (Executive Formation etc) Act 2022. This applies to all proposals in the consultation document.

Territorial extent
Health policy is a devolved matter in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. DHSC in England, the Directorate for Population Health in Scotland, the Health and Social Services Group in Wales and the Department of Health in Northern Ireland are each responsible for improving public health. This includes reducing tobacco use by implementing comprehensive tobacco control strategies and minimising the health risks of youth vaping.

Environmental policy, like health policy, is a devolved matter. DHSC, the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and the devolved administrations will work together to agree a policy across the 4 nations on restricting disposable vapes and other appropriate measures.

While the legislative proposals in the command paper Stopping the start: our new plan to create a smokefree generation set out an approach for England only, governments across the UK are now consulting to understand whether they should take action in the areas outlined in the paper. So, with agreement with the devolved administrations, DHSC is leading this consultation UK-wide.

Tobacco industry declaration
The UK is a party to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and so has an obligation to protect the development of public health policy from the vested interests of the tobacco industry.

To meet this obligation, we ask all respondents to disclose whether they have any direct or indirect links to, or receive funding from, the tobacco industry.

Legislating to create a smokefree generation
There is no more addictive product that is legally sold in our shops than tobacco. Three-quarters of smokers would never have started if they had the choice again.

As outlined in the command paper Stopping the start: our new plan to create a smokefree generation, we want to stop the start of addiction, as it is much easier to never start smoking than to have to quit. The UK Government, Scotland and Wales will bring forward legislation making it an offence to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.

The law will stop children turning 14 this year or younger from ever legally being sold tobacco products. In effect, raising the smoking age by a year each year until it applies to the whole population. The Department of Health in Northern Ireland will consider measures relating to a smokefree generation following this consultation.

Policy summary
This policy will make it an offence for anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 to be sold tobacco products (and in Scotland, also an offence for anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 to purchase tobacco products).

This follows a similar approach to New Zealand who became the first country in the world to introduce a restriction on the sale of tobacco to anyone born after a specified date, as part of its Smokefree Aotearoa 2025 Action Plan. The New Zealand legislation makes it an offence to sell smoked tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009, to first take effect in January 2027.

The UK Government, Scotland and Wales will also make it an offence for anyone at or over the legal age to purchase tobacco products on behalf of someone born on or after 1 January 2009 (‘proxy purchasing'). The Department of Health in Northern Ireland will consider appropriate measures relating to a smokefree generation following this consultation.

Products in scope of the new legislation will mirror the current scope of age of sale legislation for tobacco products. This includes a wider range of products (see ‘Product scope’ below) than the New Zealand legislation, which only included smoked tobacco. However, New Zealand is taking forward other measures which the UK Government is not proposing, including through a licensing scheme to significantly reduce the number of retail outlets that can sell tobacco and through new limits to reduce the nicotine strength of cigarettes.

See the full Government Consultation on Smoking and Vaping HERE