Tag: United Kingdom

U.K. Health Service to Offer Vaping Devices

Photo: UAV4
As part of a trial being led by the University of East Anglia, the U.K. National Health Service (NHS) will provide vaping devices and e-liquids to smokers coming to the emergency departments of five hospitals across the U.K. to help them quit.
Patients attending emergency departments in five hospitals in Norfolk, London, Leicester and Edinburgh will be offered a device, enough e-liquid supplies for a week and referral to local smoking cessation services alongside medical advice.
This will be followed up at one, three and six month intervals over a 30 month period to monitor success rates for those introduced to vaping compared to those only offered leaflets with details of local smoking-cessation services in the same trial.
“I welcome this trial being launched and the additional research, which will hopefully make it easier for people to quit smoking in the future,” said Norman Lamb, former health minister and former chair of the House of Commons science and technology committee.

I welcome this trial being launched and the additional research, which will hopefully make it easier for people to quit smoking in the future.
Norman Lamb, former health minister
“I am particularly keen to ensure that vaping is made available to people with mental ill health given continuing high smoking rates. It is very positive to have such a prominent trial funded by the National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) including clinical trials. I await the results with interest.”
The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) heralded the NHS’ decision as a landmark moment. “This is a hugely significant moment in the history of vaping and harm reduction,” said John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA.
“For the first time, following years of research and campaigning, we are finally at the point where the NHS looks to be fully embracing vaping and acknowledging its important role as the number one quit method.”
Dunne renewed his call to government to give vaping more opportunity to promote itself as a harm reduction alternative to smoking when it is due to review the Tobacco-Related Products Regulations in May.
“We have put forward the idea of using government-approved expert health claims on vaping products to encourage the remaining six to seven million smokers in the U.K. to switch as well as making sure that there are greater opportunities for the vaping industry to engage with smokers through marketing and advertising means, as current restrictions deter those who may have otherwise made the changeover,” he said.
“It is extremely important that hospital staff have the knowledge to advise smokers about vaping, including which devices to use, nicotine levels and flavors to opt for in order to support a successful quit.”
April 29, 2021
UKVIA Surveys Vapor Industry About Logistics

Photo: Andrey Popov
The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has launched an online logistics survey for the vaping industry.
This action follows the decision of several delivery companies to stop carrying shipments of vaping products.
Reports have involved leading providers such as DHL, UPS and FedEx, resulting in varying degrees of disruption to deliveries in recent months. The UKVIA is keen to learn if any disruption is affecting products imported from countries within the European Union or if products imported from China and the USA are also being held up.
“The UKVIA is extremely concerned to hear of any disruption to deliveries of vaping products experienced by our members or any other businesses in the sector,” said John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA.
“We will be closely looking into the response to this survey to gauge the severity of the problems faced by businesses. The UKVIA will then be in a better position to take up these concerns on behalf of our members and the wider industry. I would encourage everyone eligible to take part in the survey or to get in contact with the UKVIA directly to flag up any individual logistics issues.”
The survey is at www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/2YYZYJW.
April 26, 2021
Vape Shops in England and Wales Reopen

Photo: Oxford Vapours
Vape shops across England and Wales are expecting huge numbers of customers—including many smokers seeking expert help and guidance to quit—when they reopen on Monday.
More than 2,000 vape shops across the U.K. are preparing to reopen their doors to customers again on April 12 after the government confirmed the next stage of lifting lockdown restrictions will proceed as previously announced.
Nonessential retail outlets, including vape shops, will be able to reopen their doors from Monday across England and Wales. In Scotland, however, nonessential retail must remain shut until Monday, April 26.
The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) welcomes the relaxing of restrictions as the latest step on the government’s roadmap out of lockdown, especially as this coincides with the hugely successful month-long awareness campaign VApril.
Run by the UKVIA and now in its fourth year, VApril aims to help educate smokers on how to successfully quit conventional cigarettes by transitioning to vaping.

The closure of retail outlets has been especially difficult for some users of vaping products who have struggled to get hold of equipment and advice.
John Dunne, director general, UKVIA
This year’s VApril campaign kickstarted with a webinar featuring leading industry experts, including UKVIA Director General John Dunne, All-Party Parliamentary Group for Vaping Chair Mark Pawsey, Global Legal and Regulatory Strategist at Andina Gold Corp. Patricia Kovacevic and former Director of Action on Smoking and Health Clive Bates.
“The closure of retail outlets has been especially difficult for some users of vaping products who have struggled to get hold of equipment and advice that they needed and who might well have returned to smoking over the past few months,” said Dunne.
“I am so pleased that the wider vape retail sector in England and Wales is now able to reopen its shop doors on Monday 12th April and begin trading again.
“Given the evidence that vaping is at least 95 percent less harmful than smoking, according to Public Health England, it is vital that smokers are now given all the advice they need on making the switch from smoking both in store and using online advice, including the VApril website.”

We are fully committed to achieving a tobacco-free country by 2030, and, with our expert staff now able to open back up the stores, we are ready to help any smoker make the switch.
Doug Mutter, director, VPZ
“We are delighted to have our stores reopen after another lengthy lockdown,” said Doug Mutter, director at VPZ. “From the click-and-collect services alone, we have already seen a huge number of smokers coming forward looking for advice and guidance on their quit journey.
“It has been over a year now that smokers have been struggling with getting expert advice and the selection of products they need from specialist retailers. Vaping retailers have been the last remaining service where people can get help and advice on how best to quit smoking, so we are fully expecting a very busy couple of months.
“We are fully committed to achieving a tobacco-free country by 2030, and, with our expert staff now able to open back up the stores, we are ready to help any smoker make the switch.”
“We are so pleased to be able to give the service we are renowned for to our local customers once again,” said Dan Greenall, managing director at Oxford Vapours.
“Like many other businesses, despite managing to stay afloat during the past 12 months, we have seen a huge drop in aiding smokers on their journey to switching to a less harmful alternative.
“Vaping is personal and guidance is essential to ensure a successful switch attempt. Education through brick-and-mortar retail is the best way to help people looking to make a switch to the less harmful alternative.
“This couldn’t have come at a better time for smokers looking to quit, with the UKVIA recently launching VApril 2021—a dedicated educational campaign to help inform adult smokers of the options available to them and to support those wanting to switch on to vaping.
“Now [that] we can reopen our stores, we are truly able help people make the switch and support the government’s efforts for a smoke-free England by 2030.”
April 9, 2021
Industry Should Pay for Cleaning Cigarette Litter

Photo: Pixabay
The United Kingdom is considering a plan to force big tobacco companies to pay the annual cost of cleaning up discarded cigarette butts.
The move comes after fresh evidence reveals that cleaning up littered cigarette butts currently costs U.K. local authorities around £40 million ($55 million) per year. Despite smoking rates being at their lowest recorded level, cigarette filters continue to be the most littered item in England.
Among the options being looked at by ministers is a regulatory extended producer responsibility scheme for cigarette butts in England, a new power currently being legislated for in the environment bill. This would require the tobacco industry to pay the full disposal costs of tobacco waste products, ensuring the sector takes sufficient financial responsibility for the litter its products create.
“Cigarette butts are a blight on our communities, littering our streets or ending up washed down the drain and polluting our rivers and oceans,” said Environment Minister Rebecca Pow in a government press note. “We must all take action to protect our environment. We are committed to making sure that the tobacco industry plays its part. That is why we are exploring how cigarette companies can be held fully accountable for the unsightly scourge of litter created by their products.”

We must all take action to protect our environment. We are committed to making sure that the tobacco industry plays its part.
Rebecca Pow, U.K. environment minister
“We are making excellent progress in our ambition to be a smoke-free country by 2030, with smoking rates at a record low,” said Public Health Minister Jo Churchill. “While this is making a substantial impact on the public health of the country, the environmental impact of smoking due to cigarette butt and package littering is still a major issue.”
According to Keep Britain Tidy research, smoking-related litter is the most prevalent form of litter in England, making up 68 percent of all littered items and found on around 80 percent of surveyed sites.
Most cigarette butts are single-use plastic and contain hundreds of toxic chemicals once smoked. Littered cigarette filters can persist in the environment for many years and release these chemicals to air, land and water, harming plant growth and wildlife.
According to the Litter Strategy for England, the most effective way to tackle smoking-related litter is by reducing the prevalence of smoking in the first place. The government is committed and will publish a new tobacco control plan for England later this year to deliver its ambition of a smoke-free country by 2030.
The environment bill will allow the government to legislate for extended producer responsibility schemes, which could be applied to tobacco products. Cigarette and tobacco product packaging is already covered by the proposed packaging producer responsibility scheme, which is currently undergoing a second phase of consultation.
At the September roundtable on smoking-related litter, Pow encouraged parties to consider whether a nonregulatory producer responsibility scheme could be developed for tobacco waste products. Having considered further evidence, the government has decided that a regulatory approach may be required to ensure that the industry takes sufficient financial responsibility for the litter created by its products and to prevent them from undermining public health policy.
In August, Pow threatened the tobacco industry with tough action unless it did a better job of controlling cigarette litter.
March 31, 2021
Focusing Minds

Photo: Pexels from Pixabay
The post-Brexit review of tobacco regulations provides an opportunity to hasten smokers’ transition to less-harmful nicotine products.
Writing in The Guardian on Jan. 13, associate editor and columnist Martin Kettle wrote that “in almost every material respect the U.K. is currently worse off than before 1 January.” He was, of course, commenting on Brexit, about which the government, in the words of the late music hall comedian, Billy Russell, can be said to have “promised us everything, given us nothing and, before we got it, taken it off us.” There is no Brexit dividend, only a growing Brexit deficit, which can be clearly seen even though the government is trying to brush it under the carpet laid down by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Having said that, perhaps there is at least the potential for a dividend in one specific area. There seems to be a chance that the U.K. government, which has for many years been supportive of the idea of tobacco harm reduction, might, after emerging from under the stultifying EU Tobacco Products Directive, develop tobacco and nicotine regulations fit for an age that has left behind the failed idea of quit-or-die and embraced the development of a range of new generation products that are less risky to consume than are combustible cigarettes.
Certainly, the U.K. Vaping Industry Association [UKVIA] believes there is such an opportunity. On March 15, it launched its Blueprint for Better Regulation in response to the U.K. government’s consultation on the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations (and the Standardized Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations), in which it was seeking until March 19 feedback on the effectiveness of the legislation in achieving its objectives, and on any unintended consequences that may have occurred.

In a foreword to the Blueprint, the UKVIA’s director general, John Dunne, said the review of the regulations represented a defining moment in the history of the vaping industry, one of the leading market disruptors of the 21st century responsible for a significant decline in smoking across the U.K. It also presented the biggest opportunity yet for the government to create fair and proportionate vaping regulation that supported its 2030 smoke-free target and ensured the sector could make a bigger contribution to the nation’s public health and economy in the future.
To achieve such a goal, the UKVIA is recommending that the government takes an evidence-based approach to revising regulations that would, in part, help counter the misinformation being widely disseminated about vaping: misinformation that is providing an increasingly powerful drag on efforts to encourage people to switch from smoking to vaping, even though vaping is hugely less risky and less costly than is smoking. It wants the government and health authorities to mount campaigns aimed at encouraging such switching, and it wants the industry to be able to mount its own officially sanctioned but effective, multichannel, consumer-communication campaigns, including with those buying online. And it wants a regulated but workable environment in which its members can develop vaping products capable of competing with conventional cigarettes, especially on a nicotine-satisfaction basis.
In what might be seen as an unexpected move, but which is a smart one for an industry necessarily looking to be seen as responsible, the UKVIA is recommending that the regulations reach out to include “additional products and components,” especially nicotine-free e-liquids.
There is, of course, much more in the UKVIA’s Blueprint. No such presentation would be complete without a discussion about the important role flavors play in encouraging people to switch from smoking to vaping and the need to address e-liquid bottle sizes so as to reduce plastic waste and improve customer convenience, while not increasing the risk-profile of the e-liquids. The Blueprint looks at packaging and labeling, descriptors, and product quality and safety. It supports age restrictions on the purchase of vaping products and the need to work with trading standards officers in ensuring such restrictions are enforced. And it recommends that the government acts in relation to vaping in public places so that vaping is not conflated with smoking.
A firm deadline
What are the chances? Well, Dunne appears to be confident, and, with some justification, since, to a large extent, the UKVIA is pushing at an open door. The government could be willing to work with at least some of the UKVIA’s ideas, perhaps all of them, partly because smoking is most prevalent among disadvantaged groups and the government has been saying it wants to level-up the U.K. But caution has to be advised. Two skills the U.K. government is known for are its shape-shifting and U-turns. And one concern must be the government’s likely reaction if it found that conversions to vaping picked up so fast that tax revenues from tobacco fell dramatically.
And in this regard, I feel the UKVIA might have missed a trick, though I’m sure it must have crossed its members’ minds and, for some reason, been rejected. To cement things in place, might it not have been a good idea to ask the government to declare a date, some years ahead, on which combustible cigarettes could no longer be sold legally within the U.K.? I know that some would complain that this would be prohibition, while tagging on the rusty old argument that alcohol prohibition didn’t work in the U.S. and therefore it wouldn’t work with cigarettes anywhere. But the conflation of alcohol prohibition in the U.S. and a potential tobacco prohibition elsewhere never comprised a rational argument. And, in any case, what is being suggested is not prohibition but substitution and transition. Smokers would not be being abandoned, because they could still get a nicotine fix after cigarette sales were banned.
One of the arguments for putting such an end date in place would be that it would focus minds. It is clear that where the automobile industry has been presented with end dates for the sale of vehicles powered by fossil fuels, manufacturers have steamed ahead and some have been encouraged to aim at beating the deadline. From combustion to batteries; there has to be a connection.
Of course, the implementation of such a deadline in respect of combustible cigarettes would have to be dependent on regulations being changed so that those involved in the development of new-generation, tobacco-harm-reduction products could operate in a regulated but not restrictive environment. In fairness to smokers, it would need to be the case that they were presented with products that reproduced where possible at least the characteristics of smoking that most attracts them to the habit.
There is something else, too. Switching messages listed in the Blueprint seem to be way too long: 12-21 words apiece. If there is one thing the U.K.’s Conservative Party, the party of government, is good at, it is effective messaging, which it likes to keep to three or four words. I mean, if you can get people to vote for the Conservatives with the message, “Get Brexit done,” imagine what you could do with: “Don’t smoke, vape.” And while it’s at it, why shouldn’t the government require messages on combustible-cigarette packaging that say: “Switch to vaping”; or “Get switching done.”
Formidable opponents
One problem in all of this is that there are some powerful forces acting against tobacco harm reduction. In March, the UKVIA issued a press note, titled, “The U.K. Vaping Industry Association [UKVIA] blasts World Health Organization and says it risks becoming an ‘enemy of harm-reduction.’” What the UKVIA objected to in the first instance was what it described as “[r]ecent recommendations made by the WHO study group on Tobacco Product Regulations that would prohibit electronic nicotine and non-nicotine delivery systems where the user can control device features and liquid ingredients.” But it said also that the WHO had called for a ban on vaping systems that have a higher “abuse liability” than conventional cigarettes have; systems that, for example, allow the user to control the emission rate of nicotine.
Dunne made the point that vaping’s success as an industry, and its potential for public health improvements, were built on empowering personal choice. “Different systems, styles and flavors give consumers the options they need to leave combustible cigarettes behind,” he said. “I would urge the WHO to engage with vapers, to hear their stories and discover the life-changing decisions they’ve made… Prohibition is simply not the answer.”

The U.K. has a genuine opportunity to promote harm-reduction as a valid, progressive strategy for public health on the world stage.
John Dunne, director general, UKVIA
Dunne believes the WHO poses a threat to smoking-cessation and harm-reduction in the U.K. because it is out of touch. He said, for instance, that the WHO claimed there was little evidence that vaping helped people to quit smoking. But Public Health England had found in its Vaping Evidence Review 2021 that smoking quit rates involving a vaping product were higher than with any other method in every English region. “For the WHO to hold such contrary views is either bad science or bad faith,” he added. “Both risk it becoming an enemy of harm-reduction.”
The press note said also the U.K. was due to send a delegation to the COP9 meeting, the November 2021 Conference of the Parties to the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. This would be the first time the U.K. had attended such a meeting since leaving the EU, and the UKVIA had been among expert guests invited by the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Vaping to advise on the COP9 delegation’s approach. “The U.K. has a genuine opportunity to promote harm-reduction as a valid, progressive strategy for public health on the world stage,” said Dunne. “We must not allow misinformation to undermine this potential, irrespective of the source.”
But the UKVIA has a further problem. In another press note in March, it said it was deeply concerned by news that U.K. businesses were being impacted by the U.S.’ “Vape Mail” ban, part of a congressional spending bill passed under former President Trump. By April 5 [after this report was written], leading carriers such as UPS, FedEx, DHL and the U.S. Postal Service were due to be off-limits for vaping shipments.
“The vaping supply chain is a global one, bringing together resources and expertise from around the world,” said Dunne. “It is bitterly disappointing to see these American restrictions having a negative impact in the U.K., but the nature of the supply chain makes it inevitable. In the EU too we are hearing of vaping businesses being turned away from major carriers.
“The potential impact on public health is grave, as so many people are relying on shipped goods as a lifeline during the pandemic. Without proper access to harm-reduction products we know people can revert to smoking cigarettes, today in the U.S. but perhaps tomorrow in the U.K. With businesses already struggling through lockdown, and our health services under great strain, supply chain issues really are the last thing we need.”
George Gay is Tobacco Reporter’s European editor, but his territory spans the globe. Based in London, George has covered the tobacco industry since 1982, initially for a U.K.-based publication and since 2004 for Tobacco Reporter. George’s understanding of industry issues, combined with his keen sense of observation and dry wit, have earned him a loyal following among Tobacco Reporter’s readers.

March 26, 2021
UKVIA Proposes Regulatory Changes
The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) has unveiled a landmark package of recommendations to government aimed at maximizing the public health benefits of vaping and bolstering ambitions for a “Smokefree 2030.” The document, A Blueprint for Better Regulation, urges government to use its post-Brexit independence to become a world leader in harm reduction.
The U.K.’s Tobacco and Related Products Regulations (TRPR) are currently being reviewed, with a crucial consultation due to close on March 19. The resulting decisions made by government are set to shape public health and smoking cessation policy for years to come.
Former Health Minister Norman Lamb, also a former chair of Parliament’s science and technology committee, praised the recommendations.

The TRPR review offers a great opportunity to improve public health across the U.K. by tackling misinformation about vaping.
Former Health Minister Norman Lamb
“I welcome the launch of the UKVIA’s blueprint document responding to the government’s consultation—the TRPR review offers a great opportunity to improve public health across the U.K. by tackling misinformation about vaping.
“It also presents an opportunity for the industry to build on the evidence-based approach, which the government has consistently taken on vaping products, and to support smokers who want to switch to a less harmful product.”
“The current public consultation on TRPR and SPoT is an ideal opportunity to highlight how less harmful products have improved public health,” said former Labour MP Kevin Barron, who is also a former chair of Parliament’s health and social care select committee.
“The current lowest recorded smoking rates have been achieved by numerous avenues, including switching from tobacco to less harmful products. The opportunity to bring in legislation to further encourage the move to products that can satisfy an addiction using products 95 percent less harmful than burning tobacco should not be missed.”
The opportunity to bring in legislation to further encourage the move to products that can satisfy an addiction using products 95 percent less harmful than burning tobacco should not be missed.
Former Labour MP Kevin Barron
Developed by the sector’s leading businesses, the recommendations aim to help adult smokers quit while increasing vaping’s economic contribution and even addressing environmental concerns. The UKVIA blueprint, among other things, calls for:
The use of government-approved, expert health claims on products to encourage smokers to switch
Greater opportunities to engage with smokers, as current restrictions also deter those who may otherwise make the switch
The extension of certain regulations to cover additional vaping products, such as non-nicotine e-liquids, thereby supporting a highly responsible industry
Product size changes that reduce prevalence of single-use plastic
John Dunne
“The recommendations published today are the result of intense collaboration among vaping’s leading experts and entrepreneurs,” said John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA. “This is truly a landmark moment in the history of our industry, which has grown to be a genuine market disrupter and a route out of smoking for people all over the world. With the adoption of these recommendations, the U.K. could take its place as a progressive, global leader on public health.
“The government has claimed that post-Brexit regulatory independence will mean a new, and better, way of doing things. Now is the time for this pledge to become a reality. By embracing this evidence-based approach, we can empower consumers, revitalize businesses and put the ‘Smokefree 2030’ ambition within our grasp.”
March 15, 2021
Illegal Cigarette Factory Dismantled in Denmark
Police arrested 13 individuals for smuggling counterfeit cigarettes from a clandestine factory in Denmark to the United Kingdom, reports Europol.
A timely exchange of intelligence via Europol between the Danish, Dutch and Polish investigators facilitated the investigation carried out in the framework of the European Multidisciplinary Platform Against Criminal Threats.
On March 2, law enforcement officers dismantled an illegal cigarette factory in Vamdrup. This is the first illegal cigarette factory to be dismantled in Denmark. Police arrested 13 individuals of Polish and Ukrainian nationality and confiscated 11 million cigarettes alongside 11 tons of raw tobacco and a full production line.
Forensic analysis is still ongoing to quantify the factory’s exact production capacity, which is presumably several million cigarettes per week.
The value of the seized tobacco products on the illegal market in the United Kingdom is believed to be in the region of €13 million ($15.5 million).
The action in Denmark led to another one in the Netherlands that same week. Investigators of the Dutch Fiscal Information and Investigation Service searched the premises of a warehouse in Ospel. Eight pallets of contraband cigarettes stored in maritime containers were seized, worth close to €1 million in the destination market.
The cigarettes produced in Denmark were shipped to the U.K. via the Netherlands.
March 12, 2021
Vapor Group Welcomes U.K. Consultation

Photo: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
The U.K. Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) says it welcomes today’s announcement that the government is consulting on changes to the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations (TRPR).
As the U.K. prepares to leave the European Union and take control of its regulatory landscape and ahead of recently announced development of a new tobacco control plan, there is an enormous opportunity to seize the public health potential of vaping, according to the UKVIA. “Our members have been working tirelessly to agree what a new settlement for vaping should look like, to bolster harm-reduction opportunities and support the government’s ambition for a Smoke Free 2030,” the organization wrote in a press release. “This will form the basis of our Blueprint for Better Regulation in the vaping industry, a document which we will be publishing shortly.”
Whilst smoking prevalence has declined across the U.K. between 2018-2019 by 0.6 percent, according to the Office for National Statistics, there are still 6.9 million smokers, representing some 14.1 percent of the adult population. Moreover, despite vaping being acknowledged as one of the best ways to quit smoking, and according to research has higher quit success rates than nicotine replacement therapies, there are still nearly a third (32.4 percent) of adult smokers in Great Britain that have never tried vaping. Therefore, positive regulatory change has the potential to unlock the public health prize presented by vaping, according to the UKVIA.
John Dunne
“We have been eagerly awaiting the news of the consultation for some time,” said John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA. “As an industry, the vaping community has done much to provide vital information and alternatives to smokers for many years, but there is only so much we can do in the confines of current EU regulations. With the support of all stakeholders, including government and regulators, the potential improvements to public health can increase tremendously.
“The British public is keen to see how new ways of doing things can improve their lives post-Brexit. The government’s handling of vaping will be a key, early test-case. The UKVIA’s Blueprint for Better Regulation document will show just what is possible when progressive, evidence-based approaches are taken.
January 29, 2021
Different Packaging Rules After Brexit

Illustration Skypixel – Dreamstime.com
Manufacturers selling tobacco products in the United Kingdom must comply with two sets of health warnings in the wake of the country’s departure from the European Union.
Cigarettes sold in Northern Ireland must continue to bear the warnings prescribed by the EU Tobacco Products Directive. There are three sets of pictures that are rotated on an annual basis starting on May 20 and ending on May 19.
Manufacturers selling in Great Britain must ensure that products placed on market after Jan. 1, 2021, feature one of the text warnings with the corresponding color photograph listed in the picture library in Schedule A1 to the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 as amended by the 2019 Regulations, according to the U.K. Department of Health and Social Care.
There is one set of pictures and no rotations between sets.
The U.K.-EU withdrawal agreement allows the continued supply of tobacco products that were lawfully placed on the market in the U.K. before Jan 1, 2021.
Through the Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020, regulation 9 of the 2019 Regulations has been amended to remove the 12-month sell-through deadline.
The regulation allows products featuring the EU pictures that were produced and first supplied on the U.K. market before Jan. 1, 2021, to remain on the market until they reach their end-user.
The diverging packaging requirements for Great Britain and Northern Ireland have prompted cigarette manufacturers to reevaluate their portfolios.
In December, Imperial Brands said it would likely shrink its portfolio in Northern Ireland due to Brexit.
January 7, 2021
‘Brexit Opportunity for Tobacco Crackdown’

Photo: Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Brexit offers the U.K. opportunities to strengthen its tobacco control measures, by creating greater flexibility to respond to industry action and market developments, according to new research from the University of Bath.
The U.K. is currently bound by EU rules, but will enjoy greater freedom to adopt types of tobacco tax that are more effective at lifting the price of cheap tobacco products, as well as more direct pricing policies such as minimum prices or the imposition of price caps. Higher prices are one of the most effective tobacco control measures.
Furthermore, with 96 percent of U.K. tobacco products originating from the EU in recent years, a no-deal Brexit is likely to raise cigarette and tobacco prices. HM Treasury has committed to apply new U.K. import tariffs on tobacco from Jan. 1 which, if passed on to consumers, would increase the average price of a typical 20-pack of cigarettes by around £0.30 ($0.40) and a 30-g pouch of roll-your-own tobacco by £1.77.
“Since higher prices are one of the most effective tobacco control measures, this might be a rare positive from having to trade with the EU on WTO [World Trade Organization] terms,” said Rob Branston of the University’s School of Management, lead author of the study What does Brexit mean for U.K. tobacco control? Brexit offers the chance to improve public health in the U.K., but equally poses a threat to public health if rules are relaxed.”
The Brexit related flexibility will not extend to Northern Ireland, which will remain part of the EU customs union, following EU rules, and where imports to and from the EU will be tariff-free.
Northern Ireland will also retain the current photo health warning labels on tobacco packaging, whereas the remainder of the U.K. will switch to using Australian imagery.
Brexit could also end the import of cheap EU duty-paid tobacco and reduced smuggling due to tougher border checks. The cigarette allowance for travelers from the EU will fall from 800 cigarettes currently, or 1 kg of roll-your-own tobacco, to a duty-free allowance of 200 cigarettes or 250 g of tobacco.
“Duty-free allowances, tariffs, or regulatory differences will require customs checks at the U.K. border. Such checks might have the benefit of reducing the rate of illicit tobacco in the U.K., boosting revenue to the U.K. government, and the effectiveness of U.K. tobacco tax policy,” Branston said. He estimates higher tariffs would raise in the region of an additional £820 million per year for the government.
However, the authors assert that the potential benefits of Brexit for U.K. tobacco control will only come to fruition if the government seizes the opportunity by continuing to prioritize policy to address tobacco harms. Allen Gallagher, from the University of Bath’s Tobacco Control Group in the Department for Health, notes that senior members of the current U.K. government have links to neoliberal and free-market “think tanks” like the tobacco-industry funded Institute of Economic Affairs which risks leading the administration to de-prioritize tobacco control.
“Ultimately, even if good trade agreements are reached, the benefits of Brexit for tobacco regulation will only be realized if there is the political intent to capitalize on the newly gained flexibility,” said Gallagher. “There is a risk that this government’s prioritization of business interests means that the negative health impacts of tobacco will be less of a priority for the government post-Brexit and that tobacco regulation in the U.K. will suffer as a result.” he said.
With 14.1 percent of the U.K. population smoking as of 2019, tackling tobacco use must remain a public health priority if government aims to make our country ‘smokefree’ in the next decade are to become a reality,” said Co-author Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking on Health.
“With the Covid-19 pandemic occupying most current health-related attention, it could easily be overlooked that smoking remains the leading cause of preventable death in the U.K., and causes more deaths each and every year than the pandemic has to date.”

December 4, 2020