Written question WQ92509

I am very concerned by reports of increases in the number of children and young people vaping.

These products are being promoted in a way that appeals to children, including through their use of flavours, where they are displayed in shops and their retail packaging. This is clearly unacceptable and extremely worrying given the addictive nature of nicotine and the unknown long-term health impacts of vapes.

Last year, Public Health Wales established a Vaping Among Children and Young People Incident Response Group (IRG) to understand the scale of the issue in Wales.

The IRG’s report was published on 18 April. It found the vast majority of children and young people in Wales do not vape but there has been a substantial increase in youth vaping and an increasing proportion of young people using vapes are vaping daily and reporting nicotine dependency.

I am grateful to the IRG for undertaking their investigation and welcome the report. Whilst I will be considering the recommendations carefully, I have noted that the IRG has recommended that vaping should be regarded as a dependency issue and therefore those young people who are addicted to nicotine in vapes should be supported.

This is an area that I know Public Health Wales is already looking at, including how we adapt our services to better support people, including young people to quit their addiction.

One of the ways to address youth vaping and nicotine dependency is to put in place measures that make vaping less appealing. We are therefore working closely with the other UK governments to tackle youth vaping by reducing the appeal and availability of vapes through the UK Tobacco and Vapes Bill. We also plan to introduce a ban on single-use vapes from 1 April 2025.