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View allAlternative tobacco and nicotine products in the UK
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Tobacco may not be a vote-winning issue, but what a difference an election makes
15th September 2022
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As of February of 2022, subscribers will be able to view and filter individual regulatory alerts per region. If you want to get our monthly compilations, visit our alerts Round-up section.
Alerts
Our legal experts track the evolving regulation around the tobacco alternatives sector on a daily basis. These alerts are then compiled into our Monthly Round-up section.
18th January 2023
UK: Junior health minister Neil O’Brien said yesterday that the government has no current plans to implement further tobacco harm reduction strategies. He also said that because the government encourages users to quit all forms of tobacco, it did not recommend the use of heated tobacco. He added: “Snus is banned in the United Kingdom and we have no plans to introduce additional tobacco products to the market as we have safer nicotine delivery products currently available for smokers to switch to.”
17th January 2023
UK: In answer to a parliamentary question about when the new tobacco control plan and a response to the Khan review would be published, junior health minister Neil O’Brien said Khan’s recommendations were being considered and that further information would be available “in due course”. In the past few months, no official has denied reports that the new plan may not get published under the current government or said when it would be published. This suggests no changes to the alternative tobacco products regime can be expected within the next few years.
12th January 2023
UK: Junior health minister Neil O’Brien has told Parliament that the Committee on Toxicity of Chemicals in Food, Consumer Products and the Environment (COT) is still reviewing the evidence on nicotine pouches and assessing their risk to users. A final position statement will be published once the review is complete, which is expected in early 2023.
9th January 2023
- UK: Nottinghamshire Trading Standards will receive additional funding to raise its inspection capacities specifically for shops selling age-restricted products like e-cigarettes. Trading Standards officers will compose a list of the "top 10" most-reported shops and provide compliance advisory materials on age-restricted to retailers.
9th January 2023
- UK: A shop in Taunton has been closed following a seizure of 119 pouches and a large amount of illegal e-cigarettes, in addition to illegal tobacco products, which was the fourth seizure at the shop in 2022. Sharon Anderson, group manager of intelligence & investigations, Heart of the South West Trading Standards Service, said: “We’ve seen a huge increase in vaping as an alternative to cigarettes over the last few years. Originally for those attempting to give up smoking, the bright colours and sweet flavours are now worryingly attracting younger audiences and so it is essential store owners remain vigilant when selling these products.”
25th November 2022
- UK: Junior health secretary, Neil O'Brien, said that the government has asked the Committee on Toxicity of Food, Consumer Products and the Environment to review the evidence on the use of oral nicotine pouches and the assessment of risk to users. Earlier this year, the Committee issued a discussion paper and will publish a position statement once the review is complete.
24th November 2022
UK: Asked if and when the long-anticipated Tobacco Control Plan might be published, junior health minister Lord Markham told the Lords (Parliament’s upper house) the government was “taking stock” of whether a fresh tobacco control plan was the best way to respond to the recommendations in the Khan review. The same view was shared a few days earlier in the House of Commons by junior minister Neil O’Brien, bringing into question the future of the plan.
21st November 2022
- UK: When asked if the government will use the data on adult smoking habits by the Office for National Statistics for the Tobacco Control Plan, a junior health secretary, Neil O'Brien, said: "Should a new Plan be published, it will be informed by the most recent Office for National Statistics information on adult smoking habits in the United Kingdom." The future of the Tobacco Control Plan will also be tackled on 23rd November in the House of Lords where Lord Faulkner of Worcester will ask when the government intends to publish it and if it is still committed to achieving the smoke-free goal by 2030.
16th November 2022
UK: Tower Hamlets Council in London has announced the seizure by Trading Standards officers of 8,817 g of “illicit banned smokeless tobacco” as well as 640 counterfeit and ‘Potentially dangerous’ e-cigarettes that exceeded the nicotine cap.
3rd November 2022
- UK: Yesterday (2nd November) Steve Brine was newly elected as chair of the Health and Social Care Committee. Brine was a junior minister at the Department of Health and Social Care from 2017 to 2019. Earlier this year, Brine said that the last tobacco control plan promised to consider the “polluter pays” tax policy to raise funds for tobacco control and smoking-cessation services and pressed the health minister to fulfil this commitment.
31st October 2022
- UK: Today, the deputy CEO of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), Hazel Cheeseman, called for coherent regulation that covers all nicotine products, including nicotine pouches, especially in respect to regulating underage sales.
