Rishi Sunak, the United Kingdom (UK) Prime Minister, announced plans on 28 January to ban disposable vapes in attempts to tackle “the rise in youth vaping and protect children’s health.”
Disposable vapes will be banned in the entire UK, as the Scottish government has backed the plans unveiled by Westminster.
The plan also includes restricting vape flavours, introducing plain packaging for vapes and moving them out of sight of children in shops.
Additionally, new tobacco laws will be implemented which state that no one born on or after 1 January 2009 can ever legally be sold tobacco in Scotland.
Read More: Number of Scottish under-18s vaping at an all time high
Most measures will be enacted by Westminster legislation, however the ban on single-use vapes requires a separate Scottish law.
If the bill passes in the House of Commons, retailers will be given six months to implement the new measures.
Sunak announced the bill, stating:
“As Prime Minister I have an obligation to do what I think is the right thing for our country in the long term.
“That is why I am taking bold action to ban disposable vapes – which have driven the rise in youth vaping – and bring forward new powers to restrict vape flavours, introduce plain packaging and change how vapes are displayed in shops.”
“Disposable-vapes-scaled” by Peter van Niuewehuizen is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.