Tobacco and Vapes: Packaging, Appearance and Display
- The UK Government have published our consultation “Tobacco and Vapes: packaging, appearance and display” on behalf of all four nations of the UK. A copy will be deposited in the Library of the House.People deserve to live in a fairer UK, where everyone lives well for longer. The 10-year health plan for England sets out our ambitious plans to shift the dial from sickness to prevention. As part of this, we are committed to creating a smoke-free UK and protecting future generations from the harms of tobacco and risks of nicotine addiction. This consultation is the next step in delivering on our commitments.Tobacco is a uniquely harmful product and there is no safe level of consumption. Smoking remains the single biggest preventable cause of ill health, disability and death in England and costs the country £21.3 billion per year. While vaping is less harmful than tobacco products and can be an effective way for adult smokers to quit, they are not risk-free. The long-term health impacts of these products remain unknown. For these reasons, the Government advice is clear: children, and adult non-smokers should never vape. It is therefore deeply concerning that, as of 2025, around 20% of 11 to 17-year-olds—over 1 million children—had tried vaping.Evidence suggests that vapes appeal to children for many reasons, including packaging, product appearance, flavours and being easy to access. There are also growing concerns about the appeal of nicotine products, such as nicotine pouches, to children, and the increasing awareness and use among young people.The Tobacco and Vapes Act, which became law on 29 April 2026, delivers on our core manifesto commitment. From 1 January 2027, our landmark smoke-free generation policy will come into effect, protecting anyone born on or after 1 January 2009 from the harms of tobacco. On 1 June 2027 we intend to bring into effect a comprehensive advertising and sponsorship ban for vapes and nicotine products. Earlier this year, we consulted on proposals to extend smoke-free restrictions to certain outdoor places and to introduce vape-free and heated tobacco-free places —on these we are currently considering responses.Alongside the 2026 Act, the Government have taken further action. On 1 June 2025 we banned the sale and supply of single-use vapes, and at the autumn Budget 2024 the Government confirmed the introduction of a new vaping products duty from 1 October 2026, accompanied by a one-off increase in tobacco duty.The forthcoming consultation is the next step in this programme of work. It proposes ways in which the packaging, flavour descriptors, device appearance and retail display of vaping and nicotine products can be restricted to reduce their appeal and availability to young people, while still allowing vapes to be effective quit aids for adult smokers.
NHS Pension Scheme: McCloud Remedy
- On 21 May 2026 I issued a written statement to update the House on progress on delivering the McCloud remedy for affected members of the NHS pension scheme. The delivery of the remedy in the NHS pension scheme is a hugely complex undertaking across the public sector to address the age discrimination that the previous Government admitted in 2018.In the NHS, over 1.1 million pension scheme members are affected by the McCloud ruling, around 450,000 of whom have already retired. The Department has asked the NHS Business Services Authority, as the scheme’s administrator, to prioritise, where possible, delivery of the McCloud remedy to around 49,000 retired members who are likely to receive higher benefits following their McCloud choice. By 24 June, statements to enable McCloud choices had been sent to 13,982 of these members. Work to calculate and send statements to the remaining members facing detriment is progressing, with a current forecast completion date of December 2027, as set out in my statement on 21 May 2026. Members who have not yet retired will all receive a personalised statement and choice, either when they retire or retrospectively.I also confirmed in May that the NHSBSA had developed detailed delivery plans for providing remedy choices to all members, including those higher earning members whose pension tax position is affected by McCloud. The NHSBSA has already issued remedial pension saving statements—RPSSs—to 122,036 members and is continuing work to complete the particularly complex statements for 19,694 members whose RPSS remain outstanding. The current forecast for completion of this work is March 2027.I noted in May that these forecasts and the plan overall were subject to several critical dependencies highlighted by the independent review of NHSBSA’s McCloud functions. These dependencies include procuring external suppliers to supplement the NHSBSA’s capacity to manually calculate remediable service statements, and the release of software to automate statement production wherever possible. In my previous statement I expressed expectations that those dependencies would have advanced sufficiently so that I could issue new statutory deadlines for the issuance of remediable service statements—RSSs —with confidence before summer recess.
People with a Learning Disability and Autistic People: Report
- Today I acknowledge the publication of the ninth annual report on “Learning from Lives and Deaths: People with a Learning Disability and Autistic People”, which looks at deaths reviewed in 2024. A copy of the report has also been placed in the Library. LeDeR is a service improvement tool for integrated care boards to reduce health inequalities. This independent report, published by King’s College London, highlights continued inequalities, including that adults with a learning disability die on average 19 years younger than the general population—this remains unacceptable.The Government are committed to improving outcomes for people with a learning disability and autistic people. Early intervention and ensuring people receive the right care at the right time are central to lasting change. We are taking significant action through the continued roll-out of the Oliver McGowan mandatory training on learning disability and autism across health and adult social care staff; improving identification of people with a learning disability on GP registers, and increasing uptake of annual health checks and health action plans; and the continued piloting of annual health checks for autistic people. NHS England is also rolling out a reasonable adjustment digital flag for all disabled people to ensure that adjustments are recorded and shared appropriately in care records.