The Government must ensure new rules on vaping and tobacco are tightly drafted to prevent manufacturers exploiting loopholes or using flavour descriptions that appeal to children, councils have warned.
The Local Government Association (LGA) said councils support proposals to restrict the display of vaping and nicotine products, extend plain packaging requirements and regulate flavour descriptions.
However, it warned that poorly drafted regulations could allow manufacturers to find ways around the rules, while creating additional enforcement pressures for councils.
The LGA is calling for a single “sell-by” date for new products and a ban on codes, colours, numbers and invented names used to describe sweet or fruity flavours.
It also wants plain packaging requirements to cover all tobacco products, vapes, herbal smoking products and cigarette papers, including filters, retail shelf labels and accessories.
The organisation said the restrictions should apply to online listings and vape-related smartphone apps, while waste disposal information should be made mandatory on vaping products to help prevent fires at waste facilities.
The LGA is also calling for tobacco and vaping rules to be brought together into one national set of regulations that can be easily enforced.
It wants retail licensing introduced promptly, arguing that without a register of premises, councils could face an additional inspection burden.
The new regulations under the Tobacco and Vapes Act will create further licensing and enforcement costs for local authorities, the LGA said. It is calling for these costs to be fully funded through a recurring government settlement, while councils should be allowed to retain income from fixed penalties and licensing schemes to support enforcement.
The LGA said Trading Standards teams have faced significant funding reductions over the past 15 years, citing figures from the Chartered Trading Standards Institute.
Councils also commission stop-smoking services and support adults using vapes as a way to quit smoking. The LGA therefore supports exemptions from display restrictions for pharmacies and wants these extended to stop-smoking services and NHS inpatient and outpatient settings.
Cllr Dr Wendy Taylor MBE, Chair of the LGA’s Health and Wellbeing Committee, said: ‘Reducing the appeal and visibility of vapes, tobacco and nicotine products to children through tighter controls on flavours, packaging and promotion, is a vital step in tackling the concerning rise in youth vaping.
‘But these measures will only succeed if they are straightforward to enforce, watertight enough to prevent manufacturers finding loopholes and flavour tricks to market products to young people, and backed by sustainable funding for Trading Standards services to tackle illegal sales and enforce new regulations.
‘Vapes remain a useful tool to help adult smokers quit, which is why it is equally important that local stop smoking services receive the investment they need to support people to make that switch.’
Photo: E-Liquids UK
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