LATEST ALERTS

China Tobacco industry modernisation and supervision discussed at Beijing conference ...
Pakistan Khyber Pakhtunkhwa passes excise act without tax hike on oral tobacco ...
United Arab Emirates Ajman Police launch “Your Life is Purer Without Smoking” initiative ...
Italy ADM updates list of nicotine pouches authorised for sale ...
Bulgaria Bill to ban under-age sales of herbal heated sticks heads to first vote ...
New Zealand Health minister defends HTP tax cuts, will meet quit-smoking providers ...
Philippines Bill to introduce track-and-trace stamps heads to second reading ...
Kazakhstan Order issued to change warning notices in tobacco retailers ...
Vietnam Health ministry proposes tobacco tax, which could apply to heated tobacco ...
Brazil Bill introduced to criminalise the manufacture, import and sale of heated tobacc ...
Indonesia Heated tobacco tax due to increase in 2025 ...
Georgia Possible tobacco production licence fee supported in second reading ...

View all

Alternative tobacco and nicotine products in the UK

Global business and regulatory news covering the alternative tobacco industry

25th July 2024

BAT’s numbers buoyed up by modern oral segment, with significant growth in US

18th July 2024

GINN and Labstat partner to establish standards for novel nicotine products

18th July 2024

Revival of UK birthdate ban on purchase of smoking products will impact HTPs

More News analysis

Daily regulatory updates of the tobacco alternative sector. It includes weekly podcasts and monthly compilations

17th July 2024: UK: During today’s king’s speech at the state opening of Parliament, King Charles III said that the ruling Labour government will bring forward legislation to “progressively increase the age at which people can buy cigarettes and impose limits on the sale and marketing of vapes”. These were among the provisions that the Tobacco and Vapes Bill included, and are aligned with what is proposed in the Labour political programme for the 2024 elections, namely to “ensure the next generation can never legally buy cigarettes” and banning vapes “from being branded and advertised to appeal to children to stop the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine”. The background briefing states that the new government will reintroduce the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, proposed by the previous Conservative government and voted for unanimously by the Labour party in the House of Commons.
5th July 2024: UK: Pending the counting of all votes, the general election held yesterday (4th July) has resulted in the Labour Party gaining the majority of seats in Parliament – ending 14 years of consecutive Conservative-led governments. As shown in our Policy Radar, the Labour Party is likely to have a stricter view towards novel tobacco and nicotine products than the Conservative government – despite the latter proposing a ban on disposable vaping products, a comprehensive regulation of vaping products and a generational ban on tobacco products. It is likely that the Labour Party will continue this prohibitive approach, although it is unclear whether it will do so by introducing its own proposals or by refloating those initiated by the Conservatives.
13th June 2024: UK: Today, the Labour Party – the main opposition party prior to the dissolution of the parliament – published its electoral programme for the elections that will take place on 4th July. In it, the party says it will “ensure the next generation can never legally buy cigarettes” and pledges to ban vapes “from being branded and advertised to appeal to children to stop the next generation from becoming hooked on nicotine”.
12th June 2024: UK: The Conservative Party – the ruling party prior to the dissolution of the parliament – has recently published its electoral manifesto for the elections that prime minister Rishi Sunak called to be held on 4th July 2024. In it, the party pledges to “bring forward our landmark Tobacco and Vapes Bill in our first King’s Speech”. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is the March 2024 proposal from the Conservative Party to introduce a generational ban on tobacco products and to empower the government to regulate vapes and other nicotine products.
12th June 2024: UK: The Liberal Democrats party, which held 15 seats in the House of Commons (lower chamber of the parliament) before the dissolution of the parliament, has recently published its electoral manifesto for the elections that will take place on 4th July 2024. In it, the party pledges to introduce regulations “to halt the dangerous use of vapes by children while recognising their role in smoking cessation for adults”, and to ban the sale of single-use disposable e-cigarettes. It also pledges to introduce a new levy on tobacco company profits to help fund healthcare and smoking cessation services.
24th May 2024: UK: The Tobacco and Vapes Bill will not be finalised before the prorogation of Parliament ahead of the national election that will take place on 4th July. The bill is not included in the list of business that will be addressed before the current parliamentary session comes to an end today.
23rd May 2024: UK: Yesterday, 22nd May, prime minister Rishi Sunak called for UK snap general elections to take place on 4th July 2024, after they were initially scheduled for January 2025. The main opposition Labour party is currently leading the polls, and should it reach power, that would mean the end of a 14-year Conservative-led government. Despite the Labour party being initially seen as having a much stricter view towards the novel tobacco and nicotine products industry, the package of tough measures recently announced by the Conservative government has proven that a Conservative government can be as restrictive as a Labour one, as shown in our Policy Radar. Nonetheless, the Labour party might have a slightly stricter view, as shown by the fact that all Labour members of Parliament (MPs) voted in favour of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, while some Conservative MPs voted against it, alleging that the bill ran counter to the Conservatives’ spirit.
19th April 2024: UK: Answering a written question on the impacts of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill, parliamentary under-secretary for health and social care Andrea Leadsom said yesterday (18th April) that further consultation will take place before introducing any regulations and that the intention is to hold the consultation before the dissolution of the parliament for the next elections.
17th April 2024: UK: The Tobacco and Vapes Bill was approved yesterday (16th April) in the House of Commons (lower parliamentary chamber) on a second reading, with 379 votes in favour and 65 votes against. All present Labour members of Parliament (MPs) voted in favour, alongside most of the Conservative MPs. A group of more than 50 Conservative MPs led the resistance against the bill, showing the division within the Conservative party over prime minister Rishi Sunak’s policy. Most of the criticism from the opposing group of MPs – which include five ministers and former prime minister Liz Truss – mainly concerns the generational ban on tobacco products that the bill proposes, arguing that the bill goes against Conservative values. The bill’s call for evidence has been launched, and will now undergo the Public Bill Committee’s scrutiny until 23rd May 2024.
21st March 2024: UK: The Tobacco and Vapes Bill was presented yesterday, 20th March. The generational tobacco ban includes tobacco products, implying that heated tobacco would be subject to this restriction if adopted. It also gives powers to national authorities to regulate nicotine products – namely nicotine pouches – packaging and flavours of tobacco products.
6th March 2024: UK: The government has started a consultation on introducing a one-off tobacco duty increase that would amount to £2 per 50 g of tobacco from 1st October 2026. As the planned vaping tax would start to be applicable at the same time, the duty is intended to help maintain the current financial incentive for people to choose vaping over smoking. Although heated tobacco is not specifically mentioned, TobaccoIntelligence believes it will be affected – given that it has been a taxable category for some time. On the other hand, herbal heated products haven’t been tackled, while a few of the consultation questions refer to nicotine pouches in the context of the potential market-share redistribution as a consequence of the vaping tax.
30th January 2024: UK: The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is currently being finalised and will be introduced in this parliamentary session, according to junior health secretary Andrea Leadsom. Yesterday (29th January), a response to the "Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping" consultation was published, confirming that the upcoming bill will regulate nicotine pouches and ban sales of all tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1st January 2009. "The scope of the measures will be any legal product containing tobacco (smoked and smokeless)", reads the response and concludes that there is clear evidence of toxicity generated from heated tobacco in laboratory studies.

Full-length in-depth reports with detailed data and analysis for individual markets around the world

4th June 2024

Insights into compatible heated tobacco hardware for the first quarter of 2024

7th June 2023

An overview of compatible heat-not-burn sticks – selected European markets

10th May 2023

A journey analysis of vaping and nicotine pouch usage: a UK-US comparison

More Market reports

Regulatory reports

Detailed legal reports outlining industry regulation, analysis of the laws, and compliance requirements

2nd July 2024

Top changes that matter in this month’s Policy Radar update, May 2024

23rd April 2024

Top changes that matter in this month’s Policy Radar update, March 2024

6th March 2024

The disposable e-cig ban debate in Europe – can the EC block a national ban?

More Regulatory reports

Market data outputs, statistics and forecasts in interactive and downloadable format

26th July 2024

Heated tobacco pricing tracker

25th July 2024

Herbal heated sticks tracker

25th July 2024

Heated tobacco compatible hardware tracker

More Market data

Regulatory data

Up-to-date information about current regulations around the world

19th July 2024

TobaccoIntelligence compliance calendar

11th July 2024

Global regulatory tracker: tobacco-free pouches, June

4th July 2024

Regulatory database: global alerts round-up, June

More Regulatory data

Sign up to our newsletter

Stay up-to-date with key market trends and regulatory news and receive complimentary data on a regular basis