February 27, 2024
John Dunne, Director General of UKVIA, said:
“Vaping is proven to be the most effective way for smokers to quit and in doing so helps drastically reduce the cost of care the NHS provides to smokers.
“It makes absolutely no sense to make it more difficult for adults to stop smoking by penalising those who choose a safer and healthier option in vaping. Smoking kills 250 people every day in the UK and according to Action on Smoking and Health costs the UK £17bn a year. A Centre for Economics and Business Research (Cebr) report in 2022 found that smokers switching to vaping saved the NHS £322m, a figure that was estimated to more than double if 50% of UK smokers made the switch to vapes.
“Surely we should be doing everything we can to help smokers escape a habit that kills so many. Increasing taxes on vaping will make vapes less accessible for the most disadvantaged in society who have the highest smoking rates and are most in need of an effective tool to quit.
“The Government continue to hide their heads in the sand, while taking actions that will fuel a black market which is already in danger of being out of control. Restricting access to vapes will not only mean more smokers, it will also mean more illegal and unregulated vapes. We need the Government to license vape retailers and properly enforce the law against youth access before it is too late.”