The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.

I refer the Hon. Members to the Government's consultations, and accompanying consultation stage impact assessments, on smoke-free, heated tobacco-free, and vape-free places, and on the packaging, device appearance, and display of tobacco, vaping, and nicotine products. The Government will carefully consider the responses before taking decisions on future regulations.

I refer the Hon. Members to the Tobacco and Vapes Bill House of Lords debate on 24 February 2026 in relation to filters. Evidence is still developing and there are no current plans to consult on plain packaging and promotions restrictions. No assessment has been taken on filters being used to circumvent the current flavours ban.

I refer the Hon. Members to the Government's consultations, and accompanying consultation stage impact assessments, on smoke-free, heated tobacco-free, and vape-free places, and on the packaging, device appearance, and display of tobacco, vaping, and nicotine products. The Government will carefully consider the responses before taking decisions on future regulations.

I refer the Hon. Members to the Tobacco and Vapes Bill House of Lords debate on 24 February 2026 in relation to filters. Evidence is still developing and there are no current plans to consult on plain packaging and promotions restrictions. No assessment has been taken on filters being used to circumvent the current flavours ban.

I refer the Hon. Members to the Government's consultations, and accompanying consultation stage impact assessments, on smoke-free, heated tobacco-free, and vape-free places, and on the packaging, device appearance, and display of tobacco, vaping, and nicotine products. The Government will carefully consider the responses before taking decisions on future regulations.

I refer the Hon. Members to the Tobacco and Vapes Bill House of Lords debate on 24 February 2026 in relation to filters. Evidence is still developing and there are no current plans to consult on plain packaging and promotions restrictions. No assessment has been taken on filters being used to circumvent the current flavours ban.

The Government is investing up to £10 million of new funding per year in Trading Standards until 2028/29, including to the Trading Standards team in Leicester, to support the enforcement of illicit and underage tobacco and vape sales, and the implementation of the measures in the Tobacco and Vapes Act. The requested information on the number of non-compliant single-use vapes seized by Trading Standards officers in Leicester over the past twelve months is not held by the Department.

The Government is investing up to £10 million of new funding per year in Trading Standards until 2028/29, including to the Trading Standards team in Leicester, to support the enforcement of illicit and underage tobacco and vape sales, and the implementation of the measures in the Tobacco and Vapes Act. The requested information on the number of non-compliant single-use vapes seized by Trading Standards officers in Leicester over the past twelve months is not held by the Department.

We are carefully considering the responses to our October 2025 call for evidence on tobacco and vapes, including on the granting of licences, to inform our proposals for future consultation, and we will set out our plans in the normal way in due course.

The Government is investing up to £10 million of new funding per year in Trading Standards until 2028/29 to support the enforcement of illicit and underage tobacco and vape sales, and the implementation of the measures in the Tobacco and Vapes Act.

However, powers in the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 also allow licensing fees collected from retailers to be used by local authorities to cover the costs of administering and enforcing the scheme. This will minimise burdens on local authorities and central government, and ensure the scheme can be implemented sustainably.

We are carefully considering the responses to our October 2025 call for evidence on tobacco and vapes, including on the granting of licences, to inform our proposals for future consultation, and we will set out our plans in the normal way in due course.

The Government is investing up to £10 million of new funding per year in Trading Standards until 2028/29 to support the enforcement of illicit and underage tobacco and vape sales, and the implementation of the measures in the Tobacco and Vapes Act.

However, powers in the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 also allow licensing fees collected from retailers to be used by local authorities to cover the costs of administering and enforcing the scheme. This will minimise burdens on local authorities and central government, and ensure the scheme can be implemented sustainably.

I refer the Hon. Member to the answer provided on 20 July in response to Question 18891 regarding the timetable for introducing the retail licensing scheme.

Pubs provide a place for people to come together, support local jobs and help keep high streets vibrant — which is why the government introduced an additional 20 per cent cut in business rates for pubs, social clubs, and all but the very largest live music venues, building on the support already in place.

However, there are also properties on our high streets that benefit from reduced business rates but do not have a positive impact on the community. The Government is looking at how to tackle these harms and will set out action at Budget, following careful consideration of the impact of different policy options on different types of businesses.

The Government is committed to reducing smoking rates and tackling youth vaping. The introduction of Vaping Products Duty from 1 October 2026, alongside the one-off uplift in Tobacco Duty, will help to deter young people and non-smokers from taking up vaping, while maintaining a financial incentive for adult smokers to switch away from tobacco.

Decisions on the allocation of tax revenues are taken as part of the Government's wider fiscal framework, and revenues from individual taxes are not generally ring-fenced for specific spending programmes

The Government is, however, already investing significantly in tobacco cessation and enforcement activity. The Spending Review committed to investing at least £80 million per year for tobacco cessation programmes and enforcement to support delivery of the Tobacco and Vapes Act.

The HMRC Valuation Office does not hold data on the number of vaping shops operating in England.

HMRC's proposed research will use wastewater analysis to improve understanding of tobacco consumption and support the development of tobacco tax gap estimates. The methodology will distinguish between tobacco and nicotine consumption by analysing different chemical metabolites present in wastewater samples.

Specifically, tobacco consumption will be measured using the metabolites anabasine and anatabine, while nicotine consumption will be measured using cotinine and its metabolite 3-hydroxycotinine.

The research is designed to measure tobacco consumption and nicotine consumption separately. It is not intended to measure cigarette use or vaping use specifically and therefore does not directly differentiate between those products. The findings will be used to support HMRC's understanding of the tobacco tax gap.

This Government is determined to revive our high streets and ensure they are vibrant places to visit. However, there are properties on our high streets that benefit from reduced business rates, but do not have a positive impact on the community, such as vape shops.

The Government is looking at how to tackle these harms and further detail will be set out at the Budget, following careful consideration of the impact of different policy options on different types of businesses.

Vaping Products Duty (VPD) will come into effect on 1 October 2026. As it has not yet come into force, no amount of VPD revenue has been spent to date.

To give communities and councils greater control over the future of their high streets, we will consult on new planning rules so that most shops changing use to vape shops and adult gaming centres will need to submit a planning application before opening. The consultation on the change will be published in the Autumn.

Whilst the introduction of a licensing for tobacco and vaping retailers using powers in the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 will strengthen enforcement, these changes will give councils greater powers to prevent clustering or new shops opening in inappropriate locations, such as near schools.

A clearer definition of a vape shop, combined with planning controls, will help local planning authorities identify and monitor premises whose primary purpose is the sale of vapes. Evidence on likely impacts and whether other premises should also be restricted will be gathered through consultation and considered before final policy decisions are made.

We will also review business rates reliefs for businesses that do not make a positive contribution to local communities. Further detail will be set out at the Budget, following careful consideration of the impact of different policy options and definitions on different types of businesses.

These measures are initial steps towards a wider High Streets Strategy, to be published later this year.

On 10 July 2026, the Government launched a United Kingdom-wide consultation on proposals to reduce the appeal and availability of tobacco, vaping and nicotine products, particularly to children and young people. The consultation includes proposals for plain, white packaging for vaping and nicotine products, aligning existing tobacco display restrictions across relevant products, restricting the appearance of vaping and heated tobacco devices, and extending existing tobacco packaging requirements to other tobacco products and tobacco-related devices. The Government will carefully consider all consultation responses before making any final policy decisions.

Internationally, some countries have introduced packaging requirements for vapes and/or nicotine pouches, including Denmark, Finland, New Zealand, and Israel. As these policies have only recently been implemented, there is currently limited evidence on their evaluation. However, research by University College London and Kings College London has found, for example, that plain vape packaging reduced the appeal of vapes to young people without putting off adults who smoke. The proportion of young people who thought their friends would want to try a vape fell from approximately half, or 53%, with branded packaging to about a third, or 38%, with plain packaging, and to around a quarter, or 27%, when flavour descriptions were also limited.