Ministers in the UK have been told that a plan to ban the sale of disposable vapes by next summer could lead to some users “reverting or relapsing” back to cigarette smoking.
The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) said vape usage in England had grown by more than 400% between 2012 and 2023, with 9.1% of the public buying and using the products.
The legislation, which will be introduced to parliament this year, will ban the sale of single-use vapes in England to limit, among other things, the environmental damage they cause, media has reported.
However, an impact assessment by Defra revealed that “29% of current [people who vape] will either revert/relapse to smoking tobacco” as a result of the ban. Officials said, “If the ban is increasing the use of cigarettes, there could be health disbenefits.”
The report added: “We have assumed that most users of disposable vapes will switch to reusable vapes. However, there will be a proportion of users that may revert to smoking tobacco or quit vaping and smoking altogether.”
The legislation had been tabled under Rishi Sunak’s premiership, but the government ran out of time in the last parliament.
The tobacco and vapes bill would prevent anyone born from 2009 from legally smoking by gradually raising the age at which tobacco can be bought. It also aims to impose restrictions on the sale and marketing of vapes to children.
The health secretary, Wes Streeting, said this month he planned to introduce the bill “before Christmas”.
The Labour MP Mary Glindon criticized the chancellor’s tax increase on vape liquid during the budget debate, saying it could discourage people from quitting smoking.
Glindon, the MP for Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend, said the increase, to take place in October 2026, was “unsustainably high” and would “hurt working people” who used vapes.
