Supplier We Vape has warned that Government plans to force the same behind-the-counter rules on small retailers as large supermarkets for vapes could cause an increase in smoking, according to its own evidence.
Currently under consultation, the proposed rules would force vapes, nicotine pouches and heated tobacco products out of sight and behind the counter in every type of retailer.
However, We Vape has highlighted the fact that the Government’s own impact assessment relies on evidence from the original tobacco display ban – which was phased in for supermarkets from 2012 and small shops from 2015 – found a clear reduction in smoking rates from supermarket data only while figures for convenience stores showed a potential increase in cigarette sales.
The Government’s proposals are predicted to cost both retailers and supermarkets more than £800m.
We Vape is urging small shops, trade bodies and adult vapers to complete the Department of Health’s latest consultation before the deadline and challenge the government’s application of large-shop evidence to independent retailers.
Using Health Survey for England figures, officials found a statistically significant fall in smoking after the tobacco display ban for large shops and supermarkets.
But for small shops, the central estimate pointed toward a possible increase. A figure below 1 would mean a reduction in smoking. A figure above 1 would mean an increase. The figure for large shops/supermarkets was 0.933. The figure for small shops was 1.056.
We Vape went on to explain that the tobacco display ban likely worked in large shops but not small ones because of how people buy cigarettes. In supermarkets, purchases are more planned, so removing the visual display had a stronger effect. In small shops, buying is often habitual – customers already know where the cigarettes are and simply ask for them. Putting them out of sight made little difference.
Despite this, officials excluded the small-shop result and applied the large-shop data across businesses of every size when forming their current proposals.
We Vape founder Mark Oates, said: “Ministers are asking small retailers to shoulder the same costs as massive supermarkets, based on evidence that only applied to these significantly larger stores.
“Their own research found no reliable link between hiding these products from view and reducing smoking in small shops – if anything, the numbers pointed the wrong way.
“We’ve already seen what happens when regulation ignores or guesses at evidence – a thriving black market, illegal products, and vulnerable people cut off from products that help them quit smoking.
“Before these plans go any further, we’re urging every vaper, retailer and trade body to engage with the consultation and tell the Department of Health exactly what its own numbers show – the evidence does not support what they want to do. The consultation is open until 2 October and this is the last chance to put objections on record.”
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