Jake Saunders, Editor at large
On Monday, March 9, the United Kingdom’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill cleared the House of Lords, meaning it now enters its final stages before becoming law.
The bill, which has been in the works since 2022, is landmark legislation for how tobacco and vaping products are regulated throughout the U.K., headlined by the introduction of a generational ban.
Since its introduction, the bill has called for banning anyone born after 2008 from purchasing tobacco and vaping products in the U.K.
Oddly, that means that some people who are currently legally able to purchase tobacco and vaping products might lose that right in the future. Currently, the minimum age to purchase is 18, though the smoking age is 16 in England and Wales. That particular aspect was not by design and is more a testament to how long it has taken to pass the bill.
Other parts of the bill would set the stage for the potential banning of flavored products, plain packaging, and other restrictions on specific products like the size of vapes, though it’s unclear how many of those will survive the amendments stage that the bill now enters. This will happen in the House of Commons, the U.K.’s body of elected officials.
While the word “cigar” does not appear in the formal amendments from the House of Lords, cigars were mentioned on Monday. In the penultimate speech before the bill was passed by the House of Lords, Syed Kamall, who serves as the Conservative Party’s shadow minister for Health and Social Care, spoke about the potential impact on the U.K.’s cigar industry.
“I also pay tribute to my noble friend Lord Lindsay and other noble Lords who have consistently and cogently made the case for specialist tobacconists throughout this process,” said Lord Kamall. “These are small, responsible businesses serving adult consumers, some of whom travel specifically to London from all over the world to sample and purchase high-value hand-crafted cigars. These cigars are quite distinct and much less affordable than cigarillos and machine-made cigars that form part of the mass tobacco market this Bill principally targets. I hope the Government will continue to bear that distinction in mind as secondary legislation is developed.”
Kamall is a member of the Conservative Party, which is no longer in control of the government. This bill’s roots date back to Boris Johnson’s government, though it was formally introduced in 2023 when Rishi Sunak was prime minister.
Sunak’s decision to continue to advance the bill was met with more opposition from his own party than that of the Labour Party. Ahead of elections in 2024, Sunak tabled the bill, though after the Labour Party won the elections, the bill was quickly revived.
Kamall went on to mention that many of the consequential parts of the law will be done through subsequent legislation.
“It is on secondary legislation that I wish to sound a note of caution, because a very significant portion of the Bill’s practical effects will be determined not by what Parliament has already debated but by regulations yet to be laid. The rules governing vape descriptors, flavours, advertising restrictions and the designation of vape-free zones all remain to be settled by Ministers. That is a considerable degree of delegated power; it is power the Government have argued is necessary to allow them to collect the evidence.”
Cigar shops in the U.K. have argued that their businesses will become unintended victims of the new regulations, even though the justification for the law is largely rooted in youth usage, an issue that is not believed to be widespread in the U.K.
While generational tobacco bans have been debated throughout the world, they remain incredibly rare. New Zealand implemented one in January 2023, but it was repealed in March 2024. Last year, the Maldives enacted one.
