By Amelia Hughes

A Scots MSP today clarified how the Scottish Government will combat vape use in light of the recently announced plans by Westminster to outlaw single use vapes. 

The SNP’s Jenni Minto revealed how the potential ban will be rolled out in Scotland. 

Ms. Minto said:

‘Our aim is to implement a ban at the earliest opportunity to ensure the health and environmental benefits are realised as soon as possible.’

‘We are working on a four nation perspective and we await the legislation coming from the UK Government.’

When asked to set out timescales about the implementation and the four-nation approach she said:

‘We propose, as I’ve said before, aligning the coming into force dates of these regulations with the other three nations where feasible to provide certainty for businesses and consumers. We will legislate separately in Scotland to enact a ban.’

‘We as a government have been working closely with them with regards to enforcement, we already have legislation around enforcement but we will be looking at that to tighten that as best we can.’

Rishi Sunak’s Government announced plans last week to ban single use vapes in response to the rising number of young people who vape.  

Measures are outlined to restrict marketing to make vapes less appealing for children, including reducing the variety of sweet flavours, eye-catching packaging and in-shop displays. The proposed Westminster policy could come into place later this year or early 2025. 

Adults would still have access to alternatives like vapes, the policy targets disposables as they are a ‘key driver behind the alarming rise in youth vaping’ according to the UK government.  

Alongside this, the previously announced ban on selling tobacco products to those born on or after 1 January 2009 is also planned to be introduced by law across the UK. 

If Minto’s statement on the Scotland specific plan is followed through Scotland could find itself in-step with Westminster.