Market and legal data for the vapour sector in England

15th February 2024: UK: Intense inspections continue in the UK. Last week, Durham Trading Standards seized 150 non-compliant e-cigarettes worth £1,500. In addition, Wolverhampton Trading Standards issued a warning about the dangers of illicit e-cigarettes after a rise in the number of seizures to 4,665 in 2023, up from 1,042 in 2022 and just 18 in 2021. It is worth noting that enforcement has intensified throughout the UK in the past two years.
8th February 2024: UK: Non-compliant (oversized) vapes worth £2,221 were seized from four shops by the Trading Standards officers at Staffordshire County Council. In addition, around £18,000 worth of illegal e-cigarettes and tobacco have been seized in Rossendale.
11th January 2024: UK: Liverpool Council has seized 19,000 illegal vapes worth a total of £228,000 across the city in the last eight months, media reports. All inspected premises receive a closure order warning letter spelling out the consequences if they carry illegal products in the future.
8th January 2024: UK: Since September 2023, Hampshire Trading Standards has seized over £200,000 worth of illegal e-cigarettes from shops across Hampshire. This was reported after Trading Standards organised another test-purchasing action involving 17 shops.
20th December 2023: UK - England: A retailer in West Yorkshire has pleaded guilty for selling a disposable e-cigarette with nicotine to a person under the age of 18, even though a warning letter from Trading Standards was sent to the store beforehand. The retailer was fined £366 for a guilty plea, reduced from £550, in addition to a surcharge of £146 and costs of £1,000. The business was known to West Yorkshire Trading Standards due to a complaint about the retailer selling e-cigarettes to minors.
20th December 2023: UK - England: North East Lincolnshire council has urged its residents to stop buying and selling illegal vapour products. This comes after a series of inspection operations, where "a total of 3,724 vapes were sent for recycling with 8,300 seized from local businesses in the last 18 months".
28th September 2023: UK - England/Scotland: A store in Bicester has been ordered to pay over £2,500 for selling a disposable e-cigarette to a minor in January 2023. The shop was one of several visited by the Oxfordshire County Council’s Trading Standards as part of a test purchasing operation based on complaints by local residents, a local councillor and the local policing team. Meanwhile, in Ayrshire, police and Trading Standards officers inspected several retailers across the county yesterday. Only one store in Irvine was found to be selling non-compliant disposables and counterfeit loose tobacco. Illegal products with an estimated retail value of £3,500 were seized by police for destruction.
11th April 2023: UK - England: The government today announced a new “swap to stop” scheme intended to lower the smoking rate to 5% or below. Smokers across England will be offered a free vaping starter kit, while pregnant women will receive financial incentives involving vouchers, alongside behavioural support. The government will also consult on cigarette pack inserts with positive messages and information to help people to quit smoking.
24th January 2023: UK: Illegal e-cigarettes worth £107,000 have been seized in London, said Adam Hug, leader of Westminster City Council.
20th January 2023: UK: Two retailers in South Gloucestershire have been fined for selling illegal disposable e-cigarettes. Prosecution started last year when Trading Standards officers found and seized products with up to seven times the 2 ml legal limit of nicotine-containing e-liquid in one of the stores. The combined total of fines, costs and surcharges comes to £10,786.
20th December 2022: UK: Authorities have seized more than 100 non-compliant e-cigarettes in Southend following test purchases in 11 shops, media reports.
9th June 2022: UK: Today, the Independent review into smoke-free 2030 policies led by Javed Khan was published. The document lays out proposals for England to achieve a smoking rate of 5% by 2030. The report calls for making e-cigarettes more accessible to those who want to stop smoking, decreasing the VAT rate comparable to those for nicotine products, and addressing the high cost of licensing vape products with the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA). It also states that there is a need to strike a balance between allowing the retailers to promote vaping for smoking cessation and giving free samples to school children.

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