Government ‘shares lessons’ on vaping with Australia

The Government is “open” to taking more steps to protect children from vaping, the health secretary has said.

Steve Barclay said he is keen to learn lessons on vaping restrictions from Australia – where ministers have announced vapes are to be banned unless they were given out on prescription.

Mr Barclay told the House of Common’s Health and Social Care Committee that he was examining the controls on vaping in Australia to see whether any “lessons” could be learned.

But he insisted that health officials were keen to strike a balance to ensure smokers can use the products to help them kick the habit.

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Dr Caroline Johnson, an MP on the committee, said that she had “huge concerns” around vaping in children and highlighted that eight children in her constituency in Lincolnshire, who all attended the same school, “collapsed at different times following vapes, requiring hospital treatment and some of them have become quite unwell”.

She added: “All these colours and flavours like ‘unicorn milkshake’ cannot possibly be designed for an adult middle-aged smoker to quit.”

Asked what work the Government was doing on vaping, Mr Barclay said that HMRC is to publish an updated illicit tobacco strategy and he pointed to a recent announcement by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak who pledged to close a loophole that allows the vaping industry to give free samples of vapes to children in England.

Mr Barclay added: “In terms of vaping I think there’s a recognition in the fact that we’ve been having an annual review since 2014… that vaping is not risk free, that is it does pose potential risks and those are not clear.

“I think the current view of the Department is that those risks are a fraction of the risks of smoking cigarettes, but clearly it is an area where the data is evolving and people are learning more about the risks specific to vaping itself.

“What is coming through in the debate is particularly the concern in terms of the uptake (among) children and vaping and the way that products are being marketed in a way that particularly looks like it’s targeted at children and that is something (health minister) Neil O’Brien has been looking at in the context of the call for evidence that closed last week.

“So again, we’ve announced some initial measures on that, it is something that the Prime Minister gave a speech on a few weeks ago, making some changes, but we’re also open to looking at more and that is something we’re working through.”

He continued: “We’ve already taken some steps, but also we’re very alive to the ongoing issues around single-use disposable vapes, around the the amount of nicotine content that is allowed, or minimum quality standards in terms of flavours, how they’re packaged, and so on.

“I had a meeting with a leading Australian figure this morning in terms of some of the lessons around the vaping industry in Australia, and how we can look at what has been done there and are there any lessons that we can share with each other.”

Mr Barclay told MPs: “The suggestion made to me was that (there are) 50,000 to 70,000 additional quits per year in England, potentially from vaping.

“But at the same time, I think there’s growing concern more generally about the way vaping has been marketed, the take-up in schools.

“And therefore how do we get that balance right between what it may offer in terms of smoking cessation, but clearly the risk particularly around children.

“The Chief Medical Officer and others, who obviously bring the professional expertise, in terms of where we set the right balance on that.”

Earlier this month, leading paediatricians warned that “youth vaping is fast becoming an epidemic among children” as they called on the Government to ban disposable vapes.

In response to the Government consultation on e-cigarettes the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health warned that e-cigarettes “are not a risk-free product and can be just as addictive, if not more so than traditional cigarettes”.

Meanwhile Mr Barclay was questioned about why the ban on buy-one-get-one-free deals on junk food was “kicked into the long grass” by the Government.

He told the committee: “I would show the impact assessment which says that it will only save two to three calories a day, equivalent to a single grape.

“I think the the important point with issues like that is we need to get the balance right between the effectiveness of the measures that we’re taking, and we have as a government we willing to take measures such as on restricting locations addressing some of the pester power that was a real concern for many parents, so we have taken steps like that.

“We announced the innovative treatment on obesity last week.

“So we are taking steps on what is effective and balanced out with also the cost-of-living impacts.”