Labour is set to move forward with plans to ban disposable vapes, in an effort to curb sales of the products and reduce access to children, according to The Telegraph.
The Labour government will be taking further action on former prime minister Rishi Sunak’s Tobacco & Vapes Bill proposing the ban of single-use vapes, which were left behind when an early election was called.
A government source told The Telegraph: “Ministers are currently reviewing options on whether we want to progress a ban on disposable vapes.” There are also reports that the Labour government wish to see through an outright ban.
Current prime minister Keir Starmer has previously said Labour would support such a ban to curb the rising number of young people taking up vaping, and on 1 September leader of the House of Commons Lucy Powell pledged the government would “tackle the scourge of vaping”.
Ahead of the election, Starmer accused the government of being slow to act on banning disposable vapes, adding that Labour supports this move.
“I support the banning of disposable vapes, not least because of the impact they have on children,” he said at the time. “We have been campaigning for this for two years. So I have a question for the government which is why has it taken two years to get to this stage. We have wasted two years.”
The Treasury is also due to respond shortly to a consultation on whether there should be a new “vape tax”, which would add up to £3 per 10ml of liquids containing nicotine.
The Tobacco & Vapes Bill will also introduce a progressive smoking ban that would mean that any children born on or after January 1 2009 will never be able to legally be sold cigarettes.
The government has also recently revealed it is considering banning smoking outside of pubs, which could see an impact on tobacco sales – especially for shops based near pubs.
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