In response to the Children’s Commissioner’s recommendations on vape sales, the director general of the UKVIA, John Dunne, has recently expressed his thoughts and opinions. The recommendations included a ban on single-use vapes and plain packaging, both of which the UKVIA rejects.
Dunne has made it clear that while the UKVIA agrees that youth vaping needs to be tackled, banning single-use vapes is not the answer. He emphasized that vapes, whether designed to be single or multiple use devices, are age-restricted products and must never be sold to children. He sees this as an access issue and not a product issue.
The UKVIA believes that the key to preventing illegal vape sales to children is to ensure that regulations are stringent and the penalties are severe. Additionally, the association suggests that trading standards departments require more support to strengthen their frontline policing of such activities.
To this end, the UKVIA proposes several measures, including on-the-spot fines of at least £10,000 per instance for those caught selling to young people or selling illegal products. Other measures suggested by the association include a retail registration scheme to ensure that retailers meet strict standards before they are permitted to sell vapes and a robust age-verification process to prevent illegal sales. A national test purchasing effort is also suggested to ensure that vapes sold under the registration scheme are not supplied to minors.
While the UKVIA agrees with some recommendations, such as on-the-spot fines, it disagrees with the plain packaging suggestion. Dunne thinks that such proposals would associate vaping with smoking and reinforce the misperceptions already in society regarding the relative risks of smoking versus vaping, potentially deterring smokers from trying to quit using vapes.
In conclusion, the UKVIA urges the government to provide greater support to trading standards departments to enforce the already-existing laws governing the sale of vapes to minors. The association recommends increased penalties and a retail registration scheme that strictly adheres to age-verification processes. While welcoming some of the Children’s Commissioner’s proposals, the UKVIA rejects the suggestion that plain packaging should also apply to vapes.
