ASH Scotland encourages responses to tobacco and vapes consultation
- Written by: Sheila Duffy — ASH Scotland — Chief Executive
- Published: 22nd September 2026
Sheila Duffy, Chief Executive of ASH Scotland, is appealing for support for proposals to restrict tobacco, vapes and nicotine products.
A UK Government consultation is underway as part of the Tobacco and Vape Act (2026) to seek views on proposals aimed at restricting the appearance, packing and retail displays of heated tobacco, vaping and other nicotine products such as nicotine pouches. ASH Scotland has compiled a guide to enable voices of young people, parents, teachers as well as health organisations and partners in Scotland to be heard ahead of the 2 October deadline.
I’m Sheila Duffy and, as Chief Executive of ASH Scotland, I have been deeply concerned at the upsurge and continuous use of vapes by children, particularly as young people who vape are three times as likely to start smoking cigarettes.
Our concerns are on the marketing and promotions of these addictive health harming recreational nicotine products. We have long been calling for government action to ban sweet and fruit flavoured vapes, prevent brightly coloured products and packaging, and hide e-cigarettes out of sight in shops to protect the long-term health of Scotland’s young people.
I am encouraging everyone in Scotland to join us in taking action by responding to the consultation to help ensure that children in our country can be protected by the strongest possible regulatory measures.
At ASH Scotland, we are supporting several key proposed measures but also urge government to go even further by adopting stronger restrictions:
- We agree with the proposals to make heated tobacco devices vapes and nicotine pouches a dull brown colour.
- We support extending plain packaging in drab brown colour to all tobacco and recreational nicotine products, herbal cigarettes and cigarette papers.
- We want all added flavourings to be banned in vapes and nicotine pouches.
- We support the proposal to keep all tobacco, vapes and other nicotine products covered and behind counters in shops.
Please respond to the ‘Tobacco and vapes: packaging, appearance and display’ survey today to help protect the health of this and future generations.
More information from ASH Scotland on how to respond can be found here.
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