The UK Vaping Industry Association has written to new Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Wes Streeting, as well as public health minister Andrew Gwynne and Shadow Health Secretary Victoria Atkins, asking for a meeting to discuss how vaping can best support the nation’s smokefree ambitions.
The letters comes after Labour won the general election and follows recent data from leading public health charity Action on Smoking and Health UK which found more than 5.1 million adults in Great Britain have used vaping to cut down on or completely stop smoking. The letter to Wes Streeting can be viewed here or is available to read below:
On behalf of the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA), the UK’s largest vaping industry body, we would like to congratulate you on your party’s success in the general election, and your appointment as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care. Given the critical state that the NHS is in, and the decreasing likelihood of the UK reaching its smokefree ambitions, we would welcome a meeting with you to discuss how vaping can be more effectively harnessed as a tool to help adult smokers quit and prevent them from requiring future treatment for preventable illnesses stemming from long-term smoking.
As you may be aware, there is conclusive evidence that vaping is the most effective way to help adult smokers quit. Yet while millions of former smokers have made the switch already, there remains a significant opportunity for the country to get its smokefree goals back on track.
We are conscious of the fact that you are looking at reintroducing the Tobacco and Vapes Bill as part of your smokefree ambitions. We have also read the Labour Party’s manifesto commitment to ban vapes from being branded and advertised to appeal to children to stop the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine.
To be completely clear, the UK Vaping Industry Association is supportive of both the aims of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill and Labour’s manifesto commitment.
With this in mind, we would welcome the opportunity to discuss the way forward for vaping with a focus on significantly strengthening the regulatory and enforcement frameworks to ensure the category has the greatest impact on adult smoking rates, whilst tackling the issue of youth vaping. The UK’s vaping industry is already playing a key role in drastically reducing the number of smokers seeking medical attention for their related conditions, and we would be grateful for the opportunity to work with you to support your mission of creating an NHS fit for the future.
As you may recall, at our recent exchanges at the last Labour Party conference and at a recent Labour Party election fundraiser you said that you were very happy to meet with us. Unfortunately, we were unable to arrange this meeting during your time in opposition, but given your Party’s repeated commitment to working with businesses and trade associations in Government, we would be very pleased to arrange a meeting with you now to discuss this important matter.
In particular, we would appreciate the opportunity to discuss with you:
• The introduction of a self-funding licensing scheme that supports the enforcement of vaping regulations, addressing the rising challenge of the black market and youth vaping, as well as facilitating the work of under resourced Trading Standards teams across the country. We estimate that such a licensing scheme would raise some
£50m from the vaping industry – before taking into account any monies raised through increased fines – to support drastically more robust enforcement than is currently the case. We recently launched our framework for such a licensing scheme, which can be found here.
• Policies that would ensure physical retail environments are not overtly marketing vaping products to children, and eliminating their access to vapes.
• Prohibiting undeniably inappropriate flavour names and imagery on vaping products which are designed to appeal to children.
Finally, we would like to stress that since September 2023, the UKVIA has no members from the tobacco industry, nor does it receive any funding from the tobacco industry. Furthermore, we do not consult with or meet with any tobacco companies on any matter, nor are any of our members owned by tobacco industry participants (partially or otherwise). With this in mind we trust that there are no barriers preventing your Department from engaging with us.
The letter to Andrew Gwynne can be read here and the letter to Victoria Atkins can be read here.