Working towards a smoke free 2030

We need bold and decisive leadership if this is to be averted.

Here’s BAT UK’s checklist to unlock smoke free 2030 and reduce national smoking rates to below 5%.

Spread the word

Vaping is the key to delivering on England’s smoke free 2030 target, and to help level up the country’s health inequalities.

More than 50,000 smokers are ditching cigarettes for vapes every year in England, according to ASH. Yet misinformation about vaping remains a very serious roadblock.

The NHS, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE) have all separately identified misinformation about vaping as a serious barrier to further progress.

The Independent Review on Tobacco Control was very clear that liberalising vaping promotion rules is essential if the benefits of switching to vapes are to reach adult smokers.

BAT UK believes that the legally mandated on-pack information on vaping products should include a government-approved message that vaping is significantly less risky relative to smoking tobacco.

Strengthen vaping regulations and increase enforcement

It is not enough, however, just to liberalise vaping promotion rules if the government does not also move to clamp down on the non-compliant vaping products that are too often found on retailers’ shelves and sold online.

BAT UK agrees with Dr Javed Khan that more must be done to prevent young people from taking up vaping. Cartoon characters and images appealing to children have no place at all in the vaping market and should be banned.

Likewise, while vaping flavours play a critical role in encouraging adult smokers to switch from smoking, flavours or descriptors that are appealing to the young should be prohibited.

Following the UK’s exit from the EU, and the review of the UK’s tobacco and vaping product regulations conducted this spring, there is an opportunity to enhance vaping regulation.

Tightening the regulations alone however, is not enough. BAT UK would support steps to increase the powers and resources of Trading Standards so they can swiftly remove non-compliant products from the market and impose stricter penalties on unscrupulous players.

Release the potential of other nicotine alternatives

While vaping products are well established in the UK, there are other nicotine products that offer adult smokers a less risky alternative* to smoking, such as tobacco-free nicotine pouches.

However, at present there isn’t a regulatory framework for nicotine pouches, which opens the door to rogue traders abusing the absence of guard-rails. Regulations are essential for smokers to have the confidence they need to switch from smoking to less risky products* like nicotine pouches.

BAT UK believes these key actions have the power to enable the country to achieve its smoke-free 2030 ambition.

The upcoming Tobacco Control Plan presents the perfect opportunity to put the country back on track to bring down smoking rates and deliver an important element of the government’s levelling-up agenda.

There is no time to waste.

_{* Based on the weight of evidence and assuming a complete switch from cigarette smoking. These products are not risk free and are addictive.}

David Waterfield is Area Director of BAT North-Western Europe Area