The UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA) is calling on millions of adult vapers, former smokers and their families to back a new Fair Deal for Vaping, warning that the cumulative impact of Government policy risks undermining one of the country’s most effective tools for helping smokers quit.
The ten-point Fair Deal forms the centrepiece of the UKVIA’s Enough is Enough campaign, launching today (3 September), urging consumers to make their voices heard and call for an evidence-led approach to future vaping regulation.
There are an estimated 5.5m adult vapers in Great Britain, including around 3.3m who previously smoked but have now given up cigarettes, UKVIA said in a release.
However, 52% of adult smokers now incorrectly believe vaping is as harmful as, or more harmful than, smoking.
Less harmful
The NHS states that nicotine vaping is less harmful than smoking and is one of the most effective tools available to help people quit, with smokers using a nicotine vape roughly twice as likely to quit as those using traditional nicotine replacement products such as patches or gum.
UKVIA says that distinction is at risk of being blurred by a succession of new measures.
The Tobacco & Vapes Act received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026, and Government is now consulting on proposals including plain packaging for vaping products, restrictions on flavour descriptions, limiting devices to white, black or grey and restricting shop displays in the same way as tobacco.
An end to vape advertising and sponsorship is also scheduled for 1 June 2027.
Meanwhile, the Vaping Products Duty comes into effect on 1 October this year at a flat rate of 22p per millilitre of vaping liquid, which will increase the price of vaping products by as much as 264%.
The Government has also announced plans to require planning permission for vape shops and has said it will review business rates relief for sectors it considers do not make a positive contribution to communities, including vape shops.
Against this backdrop, the Fair Deal for Vaping calls on Government to:
- Tell the truth about vaping and smoking through a public information campaign: to make sure smokers understand the significant difference in relative risk.
- Do not hide regulated vapes from view: avoid treating regulated vaping products like cigarettes at the point of sale.
- Accelerate vape retail licensing: use licensing to distinguish responsible retailers from rogue operators and help fund effective enforcement.
- Drive rogue traders out of business: introduce meaningful sanctions for those repeatedly selling illicit products or selling to children.
- Recognise responsible vape shops as community assets: acknowledge their role in supporting adult smokers seeking alternatives to cigarettes.
- Allow responsible communication with adults: enable licensed businesses to provide factual, age-appropriate information through tightly controlled adult channels.
- Remove child-oriented branding, not all branding: eliminate disproportionately child-appealing imagery, without imposing cigarette-style plain packaging.
- Protect adult flavour choice: target descriptions designed to appeal to children without removing flavours used by adult smokers and vapers.
- Strengthen and expand Swap to Stop-type initiatives: maintain nationally backed access to vaping starter kits and behavioural support for smokers seeking to quit.
- Review the Vaping Products Duty: assess the hike in price this bring and its impact on affordability, smoking relapse and the illicit market before it undermines the financial incentive to move away from cigarettes.
John Dunne, director general of the UKVIA, said: “Enough is enough. Vapers and responsible vaping businesses understand the need for regulation, and we wholeheartedly support tough action to stop children accessing vapes and to drive rogue traders selling illegal products out of business.
“But there comes a point where regulation stops being proportionate and begins to undermine the very public health objective it is supposed to support.
“The NHS says vaping is less harmful than smoking and one of the most effective tools available to help smokers quit, yet more than half of smokers now wrongly believe vaping is at least as harmful as cigarettes.
”If regulated vapes are hidden from sight, put into plain packaging, increasingly prevented from communicating with adult smokers and made substantially more expensive, we have to ask what message that sends.
“We’re particularly concerned that responsible specialist vape shops are increasingly being treated in the same way as the rogue traders that our industry has spent years calling for tougher action against. They are not the same and Government policy must recognise that distinction.
“We want every vaper, former smoker and person whose family has been affected by smoking to make their voice heard. Tell your MP why this matters.”
The campaign is encouraging supporters to contact their MPs, share their personal experiences of smoking and vaping, and encourage friends and family to support its “ten commitments ask” of Government.
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