A Look at the Disposable Vape Ban in Scotland and Wales.

The sale of disposable vapes will be banned in Wales from June 2025, it has been announced.

The Welsh Government has confirmed that it will join England after the UK Government announced the same date for a ban, with Scotland and Northern Ireland expected to follow suit.

A ban on the sale of disposable vapes in Scotland has been delayed by two months to bring it in line with the rest of the UK.

New legislation in Westminster will ban the devices from 1 June 2025, but the Scottish Parliament had already passed regulations to bring the ban into force on 1 April.

A Scottish government report last year found that 22% of all under-18s - around 78,000 - were thought to have used a vape in the previous year, with more young people using them than smoking cigarettes.

The UK legislation appears to not offer a grace period to businesses, with retailers having to sell their stock of disposable vapes before the deadline.

However, vaping industry leaders have warned the move could fuel a rise in illegal sales of the products.

Disposable vapes - often priced at about £5 - are usually cheaper upfront than many refillable vape kits - often priced at about £8 to £12 - and can be bought from non-specialist retailers.But the long-term costs associated with refillable kits are lower than for disposables.

Ireland and Belgium have recently outlined plans to ban the products, while countries including New Zealand, Australia, South Korea, India and Brazil already have restrictions in place.

The British Thoracic Society (BTS) welcomes the Government’s decision to proceed with a ban on the sale of disposable vapes in England from 1 June 2025. This follows confirmation earlier this week that single use vapes will be banned in both Scotland and Wales in 2025.

BTS recently published a Position Statement on Tobacco and Vaping that builds on the previous Tobacco and Smoking Statement published in 2021. In this updated Statement, BTS furthers its position to support action towards achieving a smoke-free and vape-free society. It focuses particularly on young people, stating that neither tobacco nor vapes should be used by, or marketed to, anyone under the age of 18.

The statement does acknowledge that smokers who use regulated vapes as a tool to quit smoking should be supported to end their use of reusable vapes at the appropriate time and ultimately to stop vaping.

At least 1.3 million disposable vapes are discarded every week in the UK, as recognised in the 2024 Position Statement on Sustainability and the Environment published by BTS earlier this year. This ban is therefore felt to be further beneficial in helping to reduce this burden on the environment, protecting the wider health of the UK moving forward.