Vaping’s Bad Actors

“Blue razz lemonade”, “watermelon bubble gum”, and “strawberry raspberry cherry ice”. No, these are not the latest slushie flavours at your local cinema. In fact, these are just some of the flavours of market-leading disposable vapes, sold at thousands of retailers across every UK constituency.

The disposable vape is a relatively recent phenomenon, but Material Focus, a not-for-profit group that advocates for electrical items to be reused or recycled, has estimated that in 2023, almost five million disposable devices were either littered or thrown away every week. That is almost four times as many as 2022 and the equivalent of eight being thrown away each second. This is why I welcome the government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill alongside the announcement that from 1 June 2025, disposable vapes will be banned.

As a former schoolteacher, I’ve seen first-hand how the prevalence of disposable vapes has increased. The necessity for tackling under-age use of vapes is one that I am sure local authorities, schools and parents will all welcome.

The removal of disposable vapes, currently so easily accessible and cynically marketed at younger audiences, should help reverse the recent trend of young people who have never smoked turning to vapes. At the same time, it should also prevent millions of single-use electrical devices from blighting our local landscape and communities.

While the ban on disposable vapes is a welcome measure, the issue of vape flavours is more nuanced. Evidence shows that flavours play an important role in helping smokers transition away from cigarettes. However, the branding of some flavours has been a key driver of youth take-up.

To prevent underage appeal, flavours should be ‘adult-focused’ and restricted to flavours such as tobacco, menthol and a handful of responsibly branded fruit flavours. These restrictions should focus on limiting flavour descriptions and branding to reduce underage appeal, while encouraging adults to make the switch.

While the increase in popularity of vapes among younger Britons is rightfully a concern, it is true that vapes have helped millions of adult smokers switch from traditional cigarettes. Recent data from the Office for National Statistics shows that six million British adults smoked cigarettes in 2023 – the lowest level of current smokers since records began in 2011.

Britain has arguably been one of the leading countries in reducing cigarette usage, thanks partly to the availability of less harmful alternatives, including vapes. The introduction of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill signifies the UK becoming a world leader in tobacco harm reduction and leading the way in improving standards across cigarette alternatives.

If we get this right, it could include the UK becoming the first country to prescribe medicinally licensed vapes to adult smokers and bolster the power and resources of the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency to thoroughly inspect new tobacco alternatives and go after bad actors in the sector. These are some of the measures put forward by the Labour Party in opposition, when the bill went through committee stage in the last parliament.

I welcome that the government takes this issue seriously, and that the Chancellor announced a duty on vapes at the Budget – the new vaping tax, set to begin in October 2026, will apply at a flat rate of £2.20 per 10ml of e-liquid. This could help weed out bad actors who flood the market with dubious products while also creating revenue for the Treasury to support environmental protection schemes and fund health prevention measures which will become increasingly relevant with the rising age-of-sale policy for cigarettes.

As a nation, we should be rightly proud of how far we’ve come in eradicating smoking. It’s now time to eradicate bad behaviour within the vaping market, encourage responsible vaping and deliver on the goal to becoming smoke-free by 2030.