From today (June 1) single-use vapes are banned from the shelves of all shops.
The government crackdown makes it illegal to sell single-use vapes at corner shops and supermarkets with government saying this will put an end to the rise in use by school children and the issue of the vapes being left as litter.
This applies to all vapes, whether or not they contain nicotine.
Businesses will still be able to sell or supply reusable vapes, but they must have a rechargeable battery, a replaceable coil and wadding and be refillable.
Data from charity Action on Smoking and Health shows the number of vapers in Great Britain who mainly use single-use devices fell from 30% in 2024 to 24% in 2025, while the use of disposables by 18-24-year-old vapers fell from 52% in 2024 to 40% in 2025. However, the aim is to drive these figures down further.
As part of tough enforcement measures, any rogue traders breaking the rules will be hit with a fine of £200 in the first instance, and all products will be seized. Those who reoffend face being slapped with an unlimited fine or jail time.
Kent Vape Team
Kent Trading Standards Operations Manager Jim Whiddett said Kent’s Vape Team has been busy raising awareness of the ban, making shopkeepers aware of the new rules.
He added: “From (today) vapers will need to opt for the more sustainable alternatives, which could actually be more cost effective for them in the long run.
“The onus is on retailers and any that try their luck with an under-the-counter sale must accept it’s not worth it. We have a really strong network across our Kent high streets, built over many months, which supports responsible retailing. Anything outside of that won’t be tolerated.”
‘Environmental hazard’
KCC’s Cabinet Member for Community and Regulatory Services Paul Webb said: “We have been doing everything we can to support businesses who need advice or who have questions about these new regulations so that they operate within the new rules. Our dedicated proactive Vapes Team is doing an excellent job.
“Disposable vapes are not only an environmental hazard because of littering, but they also introduce harmful substances into the soil, rivers and streams, and cause harm to wildlife. They are a fire risk if not disposed of correctly.
“I feel disposable vapes have often been brightly coloured with sweet-like flavours and appearances clearly marketed at children and young people.”
‘Not risk free’
KCC Director of Public Health, Anjan Ghosh, added: “Vapes can serve as an effective tool in helping adults to quit smoking, and those who smoke are encouraged to switch to reusable vapes and to access the support services provided by the One You Kent Stop Smoking Service to work towards a healthy future away from cigarettes.
“However vapes aren’t risk free. They contain nicotine, which is addictive, and short-term side effects reported from using them include coughing, dizziness, sore throats and headaches.
“As vapes are a relatively new product, their long-term health impacts aren’t known. So my advice is – if you don’t smoke, don’t vape.”
At least proper smoking can look cool (think Bowie or Bardot), despite the obvious health risks. Vapers look like imbeciles.
It all looks stupid. Just suck a lollipop like Kojak instead.
Who loves ya, baby!
Frankie & The Four Seasons.
Napping used to help people addicted to cigarettes, now they’re going back to smoking cigarettes!! I’m afraid the campainers who were against cigarettes and then vaping list the battle.
Has the government also banned cigarettes??? Of course not that brings tax revenue into the economy. Cigarettes will never be banned, simple!
There’s nothing preventing smokers having a nap now.
Indeed Peter, I’m glad you got my meaning! ;)
Only COPD.
Well they will be yes-the government raise the age for smoking a year every year-nobody born from 2009 onward can ever smoke legally. The parasitical tobacco industry worked out that cigarettes are effectively dead in the west about 15 years back after the early success of vaoes, so started marketing cigarettes heavily in the third world-where government corruption on a scale that puts outs into insignificance is endemic & health & education are dire & concentrated on the new market in the west.
They bought out/killed off the little vape companies-like their tobacco customers pretty early in the game & will eventually make more from vapes than they have from cigarettes-just like the landmine companies make more from landmine removal than they ever did from the problem they created in the first place.
It will likely also be shown at some point in the next 10 -20 years that vapes are nowhere near as ‘safe’ as governments have been willing to push at the behest of these companies that make them & then they will have to come up with something to satisfy all the new nicotine addicts they have created & the ones who transferred from cancer sticks.
“It will likely also be shown at some point in the next 10 -20 years that vapes are nowhere near as ‘safe’ as governments have been willing to push at the behest of these companies that make them & then they will have to come up with something to satisfy all the new nicotine addicts they have created & the ones who transferred from cancer sticks.”
Hi mate, why are you fully ignoring the in depth, peer reviewed studies from Public Health England, that state vaping is 95% safer than smoking? Research that was carried out over years, pre implementation of the Tobacco Products Directive 2016? Unless you’re saying an EU wide research study was bunk, and have your own study with the same sample sizes to prove PHE wrong?
“The parasitical tobacco industry worked out that cigarettes are effectively dead in the west about 15 years back after the early success of vaoes, so started marketing cigarettes heavily in the third world-where government corruption on a scale that puts outs into insignificance is endemic & health & education are dire & concentrated on the new market in the west.”
As someone who’s worked in the vape industry as a salesman, juice brewer and custom coil builder since around 2009, what the hell are you on about? This is so fact averse and far from the truth one has to wonder if you’ve invented it to hurt your own feelings?
https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-funded-studies-show-damaging-effects-vaping-smoking-blood-vessels
“Cigarettes will never be banned, simple!”
Please, do act like the product of billions of years of evolution, with the sum of human knowledge in your hand that you are. Cigs are to be phased out.
“The Tobacco and Vapes Bill, currently being debated in the UK, aims to create a “smoke-free generation” by phasing out the sale of tobacco products to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009. This means that children born on or after this date will never be able to buy tobacco products legally. The bill also includes measures to ban advertising and sponsorship of vapes, and regulate their flavors, packaging, and display. Additionally, the bill proposes extending the indoor smoking ban to some outdoor spaces, like playgrounds and outside schools and hospitals. “
And lo,it came to pass that all the disposable vapes were moved on from their homeland behind the counter to their new promised land,underneath it…
Yep, almost certainly you’ll be able to buy disposable vapes from the same places that sell duty free tonacco and alcohol. When they’re caught it’ll ne a minor slap and allowed to open again.
I wonder if anything that has been banned or is illegal has ever really been totally unavailable?
Without looking overly hard you can get any substance that takes your fancy on this Island or anywhere else in fact. I doubt disposable vapes will be any different.
No doubt-but that then increases the risk of them exploding if people are buying dodgy knockoffs. I don’t really see the attraction in disposables as opposed to a refillabe one, surely that is a lot more cost effective in the long run?