Draft Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 consultation: SG response – Responses from those with links to the tobacco industry

Draft Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (Scotland) Regulations 2024 consultation: SG response – Responses from those with links to the tobacco industry

Between 23 February and 8 March 2024 we held a public consultation on the Draft Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (Scotland) Regulations 2024.

We received 86 responses to this consultation. Of these, 40 responded as individuals and 46 on behalf of an organisation.

The United Kingdom is a party to the World Health Organization’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). Of particular relevance to the proposed ban is Article 5.3 of the Framework Convention. The Scottish Government is committed to protecting the development of public health policy and tobacco control generally from the commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry, ensuring compliance with the UK’s international obligations when pursuing policies in devolved areas.

As we did not ask respondents to declare any direct or indirect links to the tobacco industry as part of this consultation, we determined these links through our own research, using resources such as Tobacco Tactics, a knowledge exchange platform established by the Tobacco Control Research Group (TCRG) in 2012. Tobacco Tactics is recognised by the Secretariat of the WTO FCTC as the gold standard on tobacco industry monitoring and other regional monitoring sites around the world are based on the TCRG model^[1].11 respondents had direct links to the tobacco industry, 8 had indirect links and 67 had no links. We are only publishing responses from those organisations who gave us permission, where the respondent requested the name of their organisation has been redacted.

We would consider a direct link to be a person, company, or organisation who receives funding directly from the tobacco industry, or an organisation which has tobacco companies as members. We would consider an indirect link to be any person, company, or organisation who derives any form of indirect benefit from the tobacco industry – this would include retailers who sell tobacco products, or anyone who receives gifts, services, or hospitality from tobacco companies.

Where responses from organisations with links to the tobacco industry have been included in this consultation analysis, their links to the tobacco industry have been highlighted.

In accordance with the requirements of article 5.3 of the FCTC, we have not considered the views of those with links to the tobacco industry when determining our policy response and amendments to the draft Regulations, due to the vested interests of the tobacco industry. In the interests of accountability and transparency, in this document we have listed the responses of those respondents below.

In order to meet our obligations under article 5.3 in relation to those responses where permission to publish was not granted, we have provided a list of these organisations in Annex A.