Vapes "well and truly the most complained about item" says Surrey Trading Standards
We've spoken to Surrey's trading standards service about how they're addressing vaping in the county
Last updated 8th Jun 2023
With vaping dominating news this week, we caught up with a supervisor from Surrey's trading standards service about how they're tackling issues around vaping.
This week, children's doctors have called for a ban on disposable e-cigarettes, with The Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health warning vaping is fast becoming an epidemic.
The UK Vaping Industry Association responded to the Royal College of Pediatrics and Child Health, agreeing that underage vaping and the environmental impact of single-use devices should be addressed - but also suggesting that a ban is "not the answer".
Ian Smith is a supervisor for the Trading Standards Service in Surrey and Buckinghamshire. He works in enforcement related to age-restricted products.
"Vaping and disposable vapes and persons under the age of eighteen will supply to persons under the age of eighteen has been quite a topic. One of things that we've certainly noticed both in Buckinghamshire and Surrey is that the complaints we've been receiving in relation to age-restricted products vapes are well and truly the most complained about item. Above alcohol or tobacco or any other age-restricted products.
"It's one of the things that's causing some concern within trading standards services up and down the country."
Ian talked through how they address premises that have been accused of selling vapes to underage people.
"What we do is we will go and visit premises where we have been receiving complaints about them selling to persons under the age of eighteen. We'll engage with them or seek to engage with them and discuss what measures they've got in place to make sure the sales don't take place."
"We will nearly always follow up with a test purchase using a person who is under the age of eighteen, which we are legally able to do. In order to ask them to go into the shop and see whether the shop will sell them the vape or age-restricted product."
"If the shop does sell then they commit an offence under the regulations - and that is something that we can investigate and may wish to report, and could lead to a prosecution."