Scotland’s ruling Scottish National Party (SNP) has pledged to ban the display of vaping products in retail outlets if re-elected, aligning vape regulations more closely with existing tobacco restrictions. The move, aimed at reducing youth appeal linked to colorful packaging and in-store visibility, would be enabled through powers in the UK’s pending Tobacco and Vapes Bill. The proposal builds on existing measures, including the ban on single-use vapes, and reflects broader efforts to tighten controls on nicotine products amid concerns over rising youth usage.
Tag: Scotland
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Glasgow Vape Shop Fire Draws Attention, Response from UKVIA
The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) reached out to fire authorities across the UK following a major fire in Glasgow that originated in a retail outlet selling vapes. UKVIA emphasized that vape retailers are being advised on immediate steps to ensure proper fire safety measures and are encouraged to review risk assessments and liaise with local fire services for guidance. Director General John Dunne described the incident as isolated but underscored the importance of proactive safety compliance, noting that responsible retailers play a crucial role in keeping vaping products accessible for adults seeking to quit smoking.
UKVIA welcomed the opportunity to work with fire services to learn from the incident and reiterated its long-standing advocacy for a robust licensing scheme to ensure the highest safety and compliance standards, now under consideration as part of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. The association also highlighted that illicit vapes pose heightened fire risks due to high-energy batteries, which burn hotter and faster than conventional fires, potentially explaining the intensity of the Glasgow blaze.
The fire drew attention to regulatory gaps, as the store involved was not listed on the Scottish Government’s Register of Tobacco and Nicotine Vapour Product Retailers and had not paid business rates. A manual count of the government’s Register of Tobacco and Nicotine Vapour Product Retailers found that 80% of 1,252 registered shops are “registered and compliant,” but listed as lacking current information.
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Scottish Retailers Want Help as Illicit Vapes Top £2.8B
Scottish convenience retailers are calling for tougher enforcement to combat what they describe as a deepening black market in illegal vapes, warning that poorly designed regulations could worsen the problem, according to Convenience Store. The Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF) said illicit vape sales are depriving the public purse of millions of pounds in lost tax revenue, undermining compliant local stores, and posing health risks due to unregulated products. As the UK Government’s Tobacco & Vapes Bill advances and Scotland prepares secondary legislation, SGF urged policymakers to consult retailers closely and invest more in trading standards enforcement to prevent unintended criminal opportunities, particularly around flavor restrictions and product placement rules.
SGF head of policy and public affairs Luke McGarty said organized criminal gangs are increasingly involved in the illicit vape trade, with products often sold to underage consumers and without any safety assurances. He warned that illegal tobacco already costs HM Revenue and Customs an estimated £2.8 billion annually, a figure likely to rise sharply as the illegal vape market expands. Retailers reported that illicit activity has intensified following the disposable vape ban, with three-quarters of SGF members saying the restriction has encouraged illegal sales. Store owners and the federation stressed that without stronger enforcement and carefully calibrated rules, further regulation risks accelerating illicit trade, increasing crime and abuse against retail staff, and undermining public health objectives, including smoking cessation.
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SGF Asks for Guidance on Nicotine Pouches
The Scottish Grocers’ Federation (SGF) reiterated its members’ commitment to responsible retailing in a letter to Health Secretary Wes Streeting, following reports of illegal high-strength nicotine pouches circulating in the UK. As the Tobacco and Vapes Bill progresses through Westminster, SGF said retailers still have no official guidance on best practices for selling nicotine pouches, despite expected age-restriction measures. The group warned that it is often unclear which products entering the UK supply chain meet appropriate quality standards.
SGF chief executive Pete Cheema said industry and government should work together to develop “clear, standardized guidance” on pouch sales and promotion, stressing that pouches are an adult smoking-cessation tool and should never be marketed to children. The federation has also written to Scottish health secretary Neil Gray, seeking meetings with both governments.
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Study: 78M Cigarettes Smoked Daily in Britain
More than 78 million cigarettes are smoked each day across England, Wales, and Scotland—equating to roughly 900 every second—according to a new study by University College London (UCL), funded by Cancer Research UK.
The study, published in Nicotine & Tobacco Research, highlights sharp inequalities in smoking habits. People from lower socioeconomic backgrounds smoke more—11 cigarettes a day on average—compared to 9.4 among more affluent groups. Regionally, smokers in the North East and Scotland top the charts with 11.7 cigarettes per day, while Londoners smoke the fewest at 8.4.
Despite falling smoking rates—from 18.8% in 2013 to 11.9% in 2023—Britain is unlikely to meet its smokefree targets. England, aiming for 5% prevalence by 2030, is projected to hit that mark by 2039. Scotland may not reach it until the late 2040s.
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Scotland Welcomes Proposed U.K. Ban
Image: boygostockphoto Scotland Public Health Minister Jenni Minto has welcomed proposed legislation to ban tobacco sales to anyone born after Jan. 1, 2009, and allow for tougher measures on vaping.
The proposed legislation, which is U.K.-wide, would gradually increase the age of sale, making it illegal to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after Jan. 1, 2009. The bill also includes powers to regulate displays, contents, flavors and retail packaging of vapes and nicotine products, allowing restrictions to target flavors marketed at children and to move vapes out of sight of children and away from products like sweets, according to the Scottish government.
The legislation will also remove existing provisions making it illegal for those under the age of 18 to purchase tobacco products.
The government previously published proposals to ban the sale and supply of single-use vapes, which, if agreed upon by the Parliament, would come into effect April 1, 2025.
“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,” said Minto. “Smoking is a huge burden on our NHS [National Health Service] 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 flavors 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 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 Program for Government commitment to consult on measures to tackle the environmental impact of single-use vapes.”
In accordance with the Sewel Convention, the bill will require the legislative consent of the Scottish Parliament.
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Scotland to Ban Single-Use Vapes
Photo: Artem/md3d The sale and supply of single-use vapes in Scotland will be banned effective April 1, 2025, under new proposed legislation.
The recommendation to ban single-use vapes follows a consultation on “Creating a Smoke-Free Generation and Tackling Youth Vaping” that ran across Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland last year.
The legislation uses the powers of the Environmental Protection Act of 1990. Each nation would need to pass separate legislation banning the sale and supply of single-use vapes, but the governments have agreed on an effective date for the ban.
“Legislating to ban the sale and supply of single-use vapes fulfills a program for government commitment to reduce vaping among nonsmokers and young people and take action to tackle their environmental impact,” said Lorna Slater, circular economy minister. “The public consultation demonstrated that there is strong support for tougher action on vaping. From causing fires in waste facilities to more than 26 million disposable vapes being consumed and thrown away in Scotland in the past year, single-use vapes are a threat to our environment as well as to our public health.
“These proposed changes to the law demonstrate our absolute commitment to further improve the well-being of communities and protecting our beautiful natural environment.”
Proponents of single-use vapes have expressed disappointment with the legislation.
“The banning of the very devices that have proved to be so successful in helping record numbers of adult smokers quit will result in serious unintended consequences,” the U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) wrote in a press release. “The direct consequences of this ill-thought-out ban will see smoking deaths rise as smokers who have successfully transitioned to vaping reluctantly return to cigarettes with all the health harms, losses to the economy and burden on the NHS [National Health System] this will bring in its wake.”
“Neither will this ban deal with the problem of youth uptake of vaping, which is one of the core aims of this legislation,” the UKVIA went on. “In fact, all the signs point to it actually having exactly the opposite effect as criminal gangs will move in to fill the huge gap in the regulated market with potentially dangerous black market single-use vapes.”
Instead of the proposed ban, the UKVIA stated that the solution is “enforcing the existing laws, which make it a criminal offense to sell vapes to under-18s.”
The draft legislation is open for consultation until March 8.
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Scotland Targets Disposable Vapes
Image: Tobacco Reporter archive The first minister of Scotland has announced a consultation on a government plan to curb the sale of single-use vapes, reports the BBC.
“In the next year, we will take action to reduce vaping—particularly among children,” said Humza Yousaf, adding that one of the options under consideration was a complete ban on disposable e-cigarettes.
A recent Scottish government report found that 22 percent of all under-18s—around 78,000 people—are believed to have used a vape last year, with more young people using them than smoking cigarettes.
It found that most e-cigarette users under 18 prefer single-use vapes.
The review by Zero Waste Scotland estimated that up to 2.7 million single-use vapes were littered in Scotland last year. The study estimated that there were 543,000 users of e-cigarettes in Scotland and predicted that without intervention, that will rise to 900,000 by 2027.
Scotland joins several countries such as France that are considering a ban on disposables.
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Poor Scots Spend Nearly Third of Income on Tobacco: Study
Photo: Stephen Davies Poorer households in Scotland spend almost a third of their income on tobacco, reports Daily Record, citing a study by Action on Smoking and Health.
Analysis by the health group shows that the country’s lowest income group will spend a whopping 29.4 percent of their income on tobacco products in 2023—about nine times more than the 3.35 percent estimated to be spent by households in the highest income group.
The research also estimates that households in the lowest income group containing at least two smokers will spend more than £6,000 ($7,129), or 73.5 percent of income, on tobacco in 2023.
“Tobacco is a major cause of inequalities, and the projected figures for 2023 we are releasing today spotlight the increasing need for NHS Quit Your Way services in Scotland to be better resourced and promoted to support people to leave tobacco behind, especially in communities facing the greatest challenges,” ASH Scotland CEO Sheila Duffy was quoted as saying.
In response to its findings, ASH Scotland called for increased smoking cessation support in communities experiencing deprivation.
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Calls for Scotland to Ban Disposables
Image: ArieStudio | Adobe Stock A lawmaker in Scotland is calling for a ban on disposable vapes “after Scotland’s streets became a plastic dumping ground,” reports the Daily Record.
Gillian Mackay of the Scottish Green Party said city parks have become clogged up by disposable plastic vaping products, which experts say are a threat to children’s health and a menace to wildlife, and she will urge the government to introduce a ban on disposable plastic vapes.
Mackay warned that the single-use devices were turning up more and more on streets and in beach clean-ups—and claimed they could become “the cotton bud of their time.”
The call comes after the Scottish government last year banned most types of single-use plastics as part of efforts to shift to a “circular economy” with fewer items wasted. However, last year’s measure excluded disposable e-cigarettes, which have seen a 14-fold increase in use compared with more eco-friendly rechargeable products.
Mackay recently also called for a ban on flavored vaping products and all advertising for vaping products.
Research last year found that 1.3 million single-use vapes are being discarded every week in the U.K., enough to cover 22 football pitches—an average of two thrown away every second.
Recycling the products is tricky as inside the plastic are valuable lithium batteries. Campaigners say the number of batteries chucked away would be enough to power 1,200 electric cars.