Fife Council’s Trading Standards Team continue to inspect shops and follow up complaints relating to the sale of single use vapes.  During 2021/22, officers conducted 142 advisory visits. These visits included the inspection of vapes being offered for sale.

Many of the inspections in Fife have uncovered non-complaint vapes with some products not being labelled correctly, providing no UK contact details and tanks sizes in excess of the 2ml legal requirement, in some cases, 5 times more liquid than the legal limits.

Despite the diligent efforts of Trading Standards across the UK, tackling the surge of non-compliant vapes being sold by retailers, a larger concern looms regarding the supply chain deficiencies.

Trading Standards are also faced with the challenge of the costs of the disposal of vapes which can be considerable.

A recent statement issued from the Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) calls for support from Government in relation to non-compliant products. “We need greater resources to support us in undertaking enforcement work.  There needs to be a wider review of the regulations to make sure they are keeping up with product development and market changes”.

Dawn Adamson, Fife Council Trading Standards’ Manager, said: “As the market for disposable vapes continues to grow, Trading Standards faces increasing challenges in ensuring compliance. The substantial increase of 241% in non-compliant vapes seized by Fife Trading Standards officers in one year, highlights the scale of this issue (616 vapes seized in 2021/22 and 2102 vapes were seized in 2022/23). We remain committed to addressing these challenges and protecting consumers”