What is the new law on vapes when does it come into force?
From Sunday, it will be illegal for any business in the UK to sell or supply single-use, disposable vapes.
It aims to reduce waste, protect the environment, and discourage young people from developing the habit.
Those found breaking the law and selling disposable vapes after June 1 could face a fine or a prison sentence of up to two years.
The Scottish Grocers' Federation (SGF) advised retailers to stay on the right side of the law after the deadline.
'There is no transitional period in play here,' chief executive Pete Cheema said.
'From June 1, it will be an offence for a person or business to supply or offer to supply single-use vapes – or have them in their possession for supply,
'Any leftover stock, come that date, must be discontinued and stored separately from items for sale, clearly marked as 'not for sale'.'
For Scottish consumers, it means that single-use, disposable vapes will no longer be available for purchase.
From June 1, if vapers want to continue with their habit, they will need to switch to more sustainable, rechargeable, and refillable vape options.
That's likely to come with a higher price tag.
For retailers, it means that it will be an offence to supply, or have in their possession for supply, single-use vapes.
Any leftover stock must be discontinued and stored separately from items for sale, clearly marked as 'Not for Sale'.
The Scottish Parliament passed legislation to ban the sale of disposable vapes last year but enforcement was delayed so that it could coincide with similar laws in England and Wales.
The law makes it illegal to sell tobacco to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009, and gives new powers to local authorities to issue fixed penalty notices to people breaching the age of sale legislation for both tobacco products and vapes.
According to the Scottish Government, an estimated 26m disposable vapes were thrown away in Scotland in 2023.
It was estimated that almost five million single-use vapes were either littered or thrown away in general waste every week in the UK. That's the equivalent of eight being thrown away per second.
'Litter is one of the reasons we're doing that – the lack of people properly disposing of them is a real issue,' Gillian Martin, acting cabinet secretary for net-zero and energy, said.
Barry Fisher, chief executive of environmental charity Keep Scotland Beautiful, said disposable vapes were becoming 'more and more common', 'spoiling' the environment, and causing danger to wildlife.
'We are dealing with a litter emergency and the last thing we need is single-use products coming to market that can end up discarded harming our environment,' Mr Fisher said.
'This ban will help remove the fastest growing litter item from our streets, parks and beaches and is a welcome step in the right direction, but everyone must dispose of their waste in the correct way.'
There's a health aspect to the ban as well, as vaping continues to become more popular among children and young people.
In 2023, 20.5% of children had tried vaping, up from 15.8% in 2022 and 13.9% in 2020
'One of the issues around disposable vapes is they're attractive to children who shouldn't really be vaping at all,' Martin said.
'They're not stopping smoking necessarily, they're actually picking up another habit. So there's a health aspect to this as well.'
Former health minister Andrew Gwynne previously added: 'It's deeply worrying that a quarter of 11 to 15-year-olds used a vape last year and we know disposables are the product of choice for the majority of kids vaping today.
'Banning disposable vapes will not only protect the environment but importantly reduce the appeal of vapes to children and keep them out of the hands of vulnerable young people.'
Get all the latest news from around the country Follow STV News
Scan the QR code on your mobile device for all the latest news from around the country
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Revealed: Labour MP in undeclared relationship with trade union boss she lobbied for in Parliament
A Labour MP is under pressure to explain why she lobbied Parliament on behalf of a trade union while in an undeclared relationship with its boss. The Mail on Sunday can reveal that Durham MP Mary Foy is in a relationship with militant former fireman Matt Wrack, who led the Fire Brigades Union (FBU) for two decades until January. Ms Foy introduced two Early Day Motions on behalf of the union when Mr Wrack was the FBU's general secretary – one asking for a pay rise for firefighters and the other calling for the Government to support a union campaign. She also accepted a £2,000 donation from the FBU for her 2024 General Election campaign, which she launched alongside Mr Wrack. The union also provided a staff member from its political team to work in Ms Foy's parliamentary office for more than a year. It is understood that Ms Foy has now contacted the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards to check whether she has complied with the rules on MPs' declarations. When approached for comment by the MoS, neither Ms Foy nor Mr Wrack denied the relationship but both maintained that Ms Foy had always campaigned for workers' rights. Meanwhile, multiple well-placed sources have told this newspaper that it was 'well known' within the union that the pair began a relationship after splitting from previous partners. While they have now been together for several years, Ms Foy has not declared the relationship in the MPs' register of interests. The code of conduct requires MPs to declare any family members involved in lobbying the Government, which includes 'cohabiting partners'. Asked repeatedly whether she felt that she should have declared the relationship, Ms Foy declined to answer. Last night Tory MP Ben Obese-Jecty said: 'If these allegations are correct, Ms Foy has serious questions to answer. MPs have a duty to be open and transparent if their family life has any bearing on our work at Westminster. 'Ms Foy should clarify immediately whether she has been so.' Ms Foy came under scrutiny in 2021 during the 'Beergate' probe after Sir Keir Starmer was pictured drinking beer in her Durham office when there were strict Covid rules in place. The Daily Mail reported in 2022 that she had launched a 'drunken tirade' on the Commons terrace against Richard Holden, the Tory MP who led calls for a police investigation into the event. She later apologised to him. Police carried out a two-month investigation before concluding that there had been no breach of the ban on indoor mixing because it was a work gathering. Ms Foy has been a long-time supporter of both the trade union movement generally and also the FBU. While in a relationship with Mr Wrack, Ms Foy said in 2023: 'I'll continue to back the demands of firefighters in Parliament.' Mr Wrack has faced his share of scrutiny in recent months after he failed to be re-elected as the FBU's general secretary in January and then was controversially named as the head of Britain's second-largest teaching union, despite having never been a teacher. The militant socialist was appointed to the £130,000-a-year job at the NASUWT unopposed, but there will now be a contested election for the role after a challenger launched legal action, claiming that he had been barred from running. A spokesman for Ms Foy said: 'Mary Foy works with a wide range of stakeholders, including a number of trade unions. 'Mary has proudly advocated for paramedics, prison officers, teachers, firefighters, doctors and other frontline staff in Durham, the wider North East and indeed the country during her time as an MP – that work will continue.' Mr Wrack said the FBU had introduced a conflict-of-interest policy under his leadership and that he did not attend any discussion on donations relating to the 2024 General Election He added: 'It is entirely reasonable for an MP to raise concerns about the pay of dedicated public servants, especially after years of austerity and falling living standards.' An FBU spokesman said: 'Our union's funding of the Labour Party and a number of its MPs is completely transparent.' A spokesman from the Fire Brigades Union said: 'Our union's funding of the Labour Party and a number of its MPs is completely transparent. Ours is the cleanest money in politics. 'Every political donation made by the union goes through a process and is agreed by the FBU's executive council. 'The FBU is proud of the role our representatives played in campaigning to ensure that Labour's General Election manifesto included a plan to extend workers' rights such as by banning zero-hour contracts and outlawing fire and rehire. 'Labour must be funded by trade unions and membership subscriptions. That transparent relationship is in stark contrast to that of the Tories and Reform UK who are bankrolled by the super rich.'
The National
8 hours ago
- The National
Scotland's budget is a disaster – but it's not just the UK's fault
There are many things wrong with the current devolution settlement, and Scotland will do immeasurably better as an independent Scotland, but the mantra that Westminster dictates Holyrood's Budget is not borne out by the legislation. For some reason, which I can only put down to a fear of taking responsibility for our economy, the Scottish Government and its Cosla colleagues spend inordinate time and effort and administrative costs carving out revenue-raising initiatives, the sum total of which may raise at best marginal amounts, via double Council Tax on second homes, licensing short-term tenancies, tourist taxes and now a cruise levy, while cavorting with the UK Government as the junior partner in twisted green (free) ports and levelling-up programmes. Apart from introducing Land and Buildings Transaction Tax as a tartan tribute act to Westminster's Stamp Duty Land Tax, the Scottish Government has singularly failed to use the powers of devolved taxes in the Scotland Act which even its own senior civil servants agree can be done. READ MORE: Why the UK media 180 on Gaza is too little, too late The powers relate to transactions on the acquisition of an interest in land, and as a result give the Scottish Government almost total control over the use of land as a source of public revenue. With the exception of our people, land is our most valuable and flexible resource which can be used to raise public funds to replace the block grant; to tax the pipes and cables of the energy companies; to lift everyone out of poverty; to transform land ownership both in rural and urban Scotland, and provide the surest of foundations to build our enterprising economy. Instead, we over-concentrate in inward investment which can depart somewhat more quickly than the painstaking efforts and subsidies used to bring it here in the first place. Inward investment extracts value from our economy for the benefit of the home states of the investors. Scots are a nation of Haves. Our income may buy less than before in comparison with other nations, but within the UK, we have the highest salaries outwith London and the south-east. The social contract between our government and our people provides many benefits and rights not enjoyed by the other three nations and our poverty levels are significantly less than theirs also. If we are to maintain the Scottish Government's propaganda that we are in some form of straitjacket then that's meat to those Unionists who proclaim that we are better off in the UK and are subsidised by it, precisely because independent analysis shows we are better off than most nations and regions in the UK. If we are really serious about independence, we must reject the block grant and raise and collect all public revenue in Scotland – then the subsidy claim is buried once and for all. The powers which we have under devolution can transform all lives and end poverty. Using them to put money in everyone's pocket will set us with self-confidence on the highway to independence as the potholes of Unionism descend into a vortex of despair. Graeme McCormick Arden MY wife and I will shortly make our 32nd visit to the Greek island of Rhodes. We love the Greek people and their determination to be free of the oppression by the Turks for more than 300 years. We were severely disappointed at the 2014 referendum 'No' vote and more so when we had the embarrassment of being offered the condolences of sympathetic Greek friends after that result. Every Sunday when we are in Rhodes, we witness a military parade to the national monument in which the Greek flag is lowered and their national anthem is sung by the crowd of local people and visitors. The Greeks revere their national flag whose nine stripes represent the nine syllables of their motto, in Greek 'Eleftheria i Thanatos', meaning 'Freedom or Death'! (Image: Danny Lawson) The Greeks actually FOUGHT for their independence, as did India, Ireland and almost all of the so-called 'British Empire'. Every time we witness that parade in Rhodes, we feel thoroughly ashamed of our compatriots who couldn't even find the courage to put an X on a ballot paper. Scotland the Brave? The Scottish people should get up off their knees and establish, not claim, their sovereign independence. It should be remembered that the so-called Union was enabled by a 'Parcel of Rogues', as Rabbie said! Jim McKenna East Kilbride WELL done to Kelly Given on her powerful assessment on the Gaza situation and the very belated criticism of Israel from the UK Government (Doing the right thing now does nothing for the dead, May 22). David Lammy described Israel's continued action as a new dark phase in the conflict. That was the case many months ago, but they said nothing except making weak statements about more aid needing to get in. Nothing about the wanton death and destruction which the UK is helping to facilitate. War crimes are war crimes whoever is responsible. I suspect UK Government ministers are now getting a bit nervous that they might be complicit if a war crimes trial ever comes to fruition. The UN investigations are ongoing, and even if there were a ceasefire tomorrow, these indictments don't go away. The Benjamin Netanyahu government has been testing how far it can go breaking international law for the past 18 months and has found it can get away with just about anything, shielded as it is by the US, which of course doesn't recognise the ICC. We're doing our bit out of Akrotiri, providing surveillance, as you highlighted in The National, as well as possibly helping the transport of weapons from the US to Israel. The UK Government said it's suspending trade talks with Israel. I didn't know there were any. Why would you want to trade with a regime guilty of war crimes? We stopped trading with Russia as soon as it invaded Ukraine. UK exports to Israel are around £3 billion and imports slightly less at £2.5bn, a relatively minor trading partner. While it's currently illegal for institutions to boycott Israeli goods, consumers are free to make their own decisions. Fruit and vegetables is one area to keep an eye on, as the origin is sometimes deliberately concealed. Another consumer area is moulded plastic, and there's quite a lot of plastic garden furniture and storage stocked by DIY stores and garden centres which are made in Israel, but you have to look very carefully to find the origin in the small print. When will justice be done? Hugh Walker Dunfermline MUCH is said, and rightly so, about large-scale electricity generators bespoiling the landscape. I feel that we would be better served by using marine generators to draw energy from tidal flow, particularly where narrows are formed such as at Corran and the nearby entrance to Loch Leven. One very good reason for using tidal generation is that the power will be produced for about 18 hours every day and not have downtime like wind generators. They can be small scale to power island or mainland rural communities which ideally will be locally publicly owned and operated, or large scale to feed a new Scotland grid. Another advantage is that high tides are at different times around Scotland's coast thereby giving a steady flow to the grid. As is the case of the marine generator at Strangford Lough in north-east Ireland, there is no impediment to shipping. We could also reset our thinking away from the mega size and think more about the micro scale. How many farms et cetera have a large burn flowing down, well capable of a decent output like the one which outlets into Loch Ard but can barely be seen? We could also make better use of our planning laws as I see new houses and buildings going up with perhaps as little as two or no solar panels PV. Or thermal. M Ross Aviemore LES Hunter (Letters, May 23) admirably articulates the Labour Theory of Property as expounded most notably by John Locke. Nobody can claim outright ownership of the gifts of nature (or God, if you will); only artefacts can rightly be deemed legitimate property. But then the socialist planner in Les takes over, demanding that the whole country be taken into public ownership when this is already the case (the only real landowner is the state, which claims eminent domain). And private hospitals, schools etc should certainly not be exempt from a land-use levy. We could rely on Adam Smith's 'invisible hand' to regulate land questions fairly, if only the state would create a level playing field, ending monopoly and speculation by fully recovering site values for revenue. George Morton Rosyth 'FIVE More Years' of John Swinney would be the death knell of the declining impetus in the independence campaign. The SNP Government should delete the N for National and insert D for Devolution, as they are like nodding dogs towards corrupt Westminster. We need a political body with the word 'independence' at the forefront of its targeted programme. It is years behind time that the current government will have to reform its attitude if it is to establish Scotland as a country and not a county, being pillaged of its assets by the despicable Unionist governments in England. Sandy Coghill Isle of Skye IT'S time to ditch Crown immunity. No-one is above the law, even government ministers. When will the British government stop its long history of aiding, abetting and committing genocidal clearance? The list is not exhaustive. Not unlike Gaza ... they spent the 1700s and 1800s either committing genocide or clearance against the Scots, let one million Irish starve in the 1840s by failing to assist them and exporting the little food they had to England (causing en masse emigration), backed the Nigerian government in the 1960s which led to mass starvation and genocide in Biafra. They pushed for less of a UN troop presence in Rwanda in the 1990s which led to genocide, bombed Iraq on false pretences killing half a million between 2003-2011 for access to oil wells and now Westminster is backing genocide in Palestine. A quarter of MPs have been financially backed by Israel, thus giving Israel massive influence over UK policy-making. Yet, none of this represents the vast majority of British voters. So, if our MPs are not representing us, who are they representing? If the Northern Irish, Welsh and Scots have any sense, they will make the three devolved governments come together and agree to hold a referendum on freedom on the same day for each nation. It's time to kick the British government out. R McCallum Dalry
Edinburgh Live
10 hours ago
- Edinburgh Live
Hungry Edinburgh customers in huge queue as new burger joint opens in Southside
Our community members are treated to special offers, promotions and adverts from us and our partners. You can check out at any time. More info Dozens of Edinburgh customers were spotted queuing down the street ahead of a new burger joint opening. Burger-Drop opened on South Clerk Street on Friday night and the chain was celebrating its first Scottish restaurant by giving out 50 free burgers to the first customers through the door from 6pm. For the rest of the evening orders were slashed to half price as a huge queue formed on the Southside street which was filmed by staff and uploaded to their Instagram story. The chain currently operates four stores - with two in Newcastle, one in Sunderland and one in Whitley Bay. Owners say there are 'more in the pipeline'. Posting on Instagram along with a short clip of the queue of customers the team said: "Is that the biggest opening Scotland has ever seen? Burger-Drop has officially landed in Edinburgh. "Thank you for all the love on such an epic launch night." The new restaurant sits at 74-78 South Clerk Street, having moved into the spacious unit previously operated by Black Rooster - a former peri peri chicken restaurant. Join Edinburgh Live's Whatsapp Community here and get the latest news sent straight to your messages. Customers at Burger-Drop can choose from a selection of juicy burgers, chicken tenders and loaded fries as well as select bundles offering deals on a burger with fries and a drink. For more information and latest updates you can check out Burger-Drop on Instagram here.
