Nerys Evans MS, Deputy Minister for Public and Preventative Health
Today sees the launch of a consultation on our mission to address youth vaping and smoking across Wales and stop vapes being designed and targeted at children. The four-nation consultation sets out proposals on the packaging, appearance and display of vapes, tobacco and nicotine products across the UK and is aimed at stopping the marketing through bright colours, cartoon branding and sweet-sounding flavour names which makes them appealing to children. For vapes, this will mean the introduction of plain white packaging, as well as restrictions on flavour descriptions and the colours of vape devices. In addition, the plans will keep vapes products out of sight in shops, airports and wholesalers, ending the prominent retail displays that are also attractive to children.
There are deeply concerning levels of youth vaping in Wales. The most recent School Health Research Network data from 2023 shows that over a quarter of 11-16 year olds in Wales have tried a vape and 6.9% use vapes weekly. For those age 16, the weekly use figure is 16.2%. Wider figures on use amongst 11–17-year-olds across Great Britain shows that over 1 million young people have tried vaping. Although vapes are less harmful than tobacco products and can be an effective tool to help some adult smokers to quit, they are not risk-free and their long-term health impacts remains unknown. It is therefore worrying that children and young people, and people who have never smoked are using these products, many of which contain highly addictive nicotine. There are also examples of illegal products being sold that contain dangerous substances like lead and nickel. As vaping can lead to dependence on nicotine and evidence suggests children and young people may be more susceptible to these risks, this is a major concern for this government, as we know it is for parents, carers, schools and young people who want to quit. We are determined to tackle this issue, and this is a key step in doing so.
Smoking remains one of the leading causes of preventable illness and death in Wales, causing around 3800 deaths and costing an estimated £1.56 billion every year. The Welsh Government is committed to taking all measures necessary to address the devastating health impacts of tobacco in Wales and to prevent young people from using vapes. The Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026, which was developed jointly by the four Governments of the UK, creates a smokefree generation in the UK by preventing anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 from ever legally being sold tobacco. The legislation also strengthens enforcement, introduces a ban on vape advertising and sponsorship and includes a range of new regulation-making powers designed to address youth vaping. I am committed to working closely with the other UK nations and making use of these new powers as soon as possible in order to protect children and young people from these products and maximise wider public health benefits.
Evidence suggests that vapes appeal to children for many reasons, including packaging, product appearance, flavours and being easy to access. There are also growing concerns about the appeal of nicotine products, such as nicotine pouches, to children, and the increasing awareness and use among young people. The proposals aim to address the appeal and accessibility of these products to reduce their uptake, particularly for children and young people, whilst still allowing vapes to be available as a quit aid for adult smokers. Specifically, the consultation proposes that vaping and nicotine products should be in plain white packaging with limited imagery and branding, and that the device colour be restricted to only white, black or grey, to reduce their appeal to children. For flavours, the proposal is to restrict flavour descriptors to a single, recognised flavour (for example, ‘Apple’) and to restrict the use of names which appeal to children, such as references to confectionary, sweets, desserts or alcohol (for example ‘Chocolate’, ‘Candy’ and ‘Bubblegum’). Currently vapes can and do copy the design of other products, such as highlighter pens, refillable water bottles and game devices. The consultation therefore proposes to limit the potential appeal of vapes by stopping them from looking like other products.
Additionally, the consultation seeks views on introducing new regulations to align existing tobacco packaging requirements across all tobacco products, herbal smoking products and cigarette papers, as well as restricting the appearance of heated tobacco devices. Whilst cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco are already subject to strict packaging regulations, other tobacco products, herbal smoking products, cigarette papers and heated tobacco devices are still sold in appealing packaging that is often colourful with distinctive branding. The consultation proposals will mean that all these products have plain packaging and include picture warnings (apart from cigarette papers due to their small size) to make users more aware of the harms of using these products. To support more people to quit tobacco use, we are also proposing pack inserts with positive quit-themed messages. The consultation also proposes aligning the retail display restrictions across these products and removing the bulk tobacconist retail display exemption, to ensure a consistent approach to reducing visibility of tobacco products.
Whilst the proposals set out in the consultation are for the whole of the UK, the powers to make the regulations on where these products can be displayed in shops in Wales rests with Welsh Ministers. I have therefore published consultation stage impact assessments for these measures on the Welsh Government website and would welcome views. These impact assessments can be read alongside the assessment undertaken on the wider consultation proposals that have been published on the UK government website.
The consultation will be open for 12 weeks and will close on 2 October 2026. I encourage all stakeholders and those interested in these proposals to take part in the consultation and make their views known.