Official Report: Minutes of Evidence

The Chairperson (Mr McGuigan): I welcome Lesley Heaney, head of tobacco control, and Seán Garland, deputy principal in tobacco control. I invite you to make your opening remarks, and then we will take questions, if we have any.

Ms Lesley Heaney (Department of Health): Thank you, Chair, for the opportunity to brief the Committee on the regulations. Before moving to the statutory rules, I thought that it would be helpful to set out some brief background.

Smoking remains the leading preventable cause of death, disability and ill health. In Northern Ireland, it is responsible for more than 2,000 deaths each year and more than 25,000 smoking-attributable hospital admissions annually. In 2019-2020, Northern Ireland's hospitals spent £218 million treating smoking-related conditions.

It is also important to consider the impacts associated with vaping. Recent research conducted by the Public Health Agency examined the views and experiences of young people aged from 11 to 18 in Northern Ireland in relation to vape and e-cigarette use. The findings show that 20% of respondents have tried a vape at least once and that 15% are current vape users. In year 14 — that is 17- to 18-year-olds — 46% of pupils currently vape, and 53% of all respondents who indicated that they currently vape are regular users, of whom 65% indicated that they vape daily.

The Committee will be aware that the Tobacco and Vapes Act — legislation that had the support of the Northern Ireland Assembly through a legislative consent motion in February 2025 — was enacted on 29 April 2026. That historic piece of legislation represents a landmark step forward in saving lives and protecting future generations from the harms associated with tobacco use and nicotine addiction.

The UK Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 introduces a range of important measures, including making it an offence to sell tobacco products to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009, and that commences on 1 January 2027; banning the sale of non-nicotine vapes and nicotine products to under-18s; banning the free distribution and discount of products; extending the tobacco vending machine ban to also include cigarette papers, vapes and other nicotine products; strengthening enforcement activity to support implementation of the measures; extending the existing tobacco retailer register to retailers of vaping and other nicotine products; and, finally, powers to introduce retail licensing in the longer term following public consultation.

The Department's immediate focus is to support the implementation of the key provisions in the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026, including the development of necessary secondary legislation. The two statutory rules before the Committee today are technical and consequential to the provisions contained in the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026. First, the Tobacco Retailer (Fixed Penalty) (Amount) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026 will revise the list of fixed penalty offences and prescribe the relevant penalty amounts to reflect the new and amended offences introduced by the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026. They will also revoke the Tobacco Retailer (Fixed Penalty) (General) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2021, as their provisions are superseded by the amendments introduced through the statutory rule.

Secondly, the Tobacco Retailer (Miscellaneous Amendments) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026 make a number of administrative changes to secondary legislation, which include updating the information required for registration applications and revising the prescribed wording of the restricted premises order notice to ensure that the requirements apply to tobacco products, herbal smoking products, vaping products, nicotine products and cigarette papers; updating the return postal address and email address details for the retail register to reflect the updated contact details of the newly extended register; and, finally, amending the form of a fixed penalty notice by removing obsolete statutory references and updating payment methods to include electronic and online payment.

The purpose of both statutory rules is to ensure that the legislative and enforcement framework in Northern Ireland is fully aligned with the expanded regulatory framework for tobacco, vaping and nicotine products, as introduced by the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026. As noted, the statutory rules are technical in nature; they do not introduce any new policy and have no additional cost implications for the Department of Health in Northern Ireland.

The regulations will be commenced on a phased basis in order to align with the corresponding provisions in the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026. The provisions relating to age of sale, proxy purchase of vaping and nicotine products, extension of the vending machine ban and restrictions on free distribution will commence on 29 October 2026. The tobacco age of sale provisions will commence on 1 January 2027, and the provisions relating to the extended registration requirements for retailers of tobacco, vape and nicotine products will become enforceable on 1 March 2027, with fixed penalty notices being issued.

In summary, the regulations will support the effective implementation of provisions in the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 in order to ensure that they operate as intended in Northern Ireland.

Seán and I are happy to answer any questions that you may have.

The Chairperson (Mr McGuigan): Thank you. The fact that there are 2,000 deaths each year as a result of cigarette smoking still shocks me, to be honest. As a reformed smoker who does not smoke any more, I am rarely in contact with people who smoke. From a public health point of view, it is obvious that policy needs to be directed towards that. I have no issue with that, and I support all that you are doing.

You have said that there was no consultation on the regulations, because the amendments are technical and non-consequential in nature. However, there will be a impact on retailers. I am not sure why there was no consultation with the retail sector.

Ms Heaney: No formal public consultation was carried out. However, we have engaged with retailers. We met a number of retail organisations in Northern Ireland on the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026, including Retail NI. It is anticipated that there might be some small cost to retailers in training staff, but we consider that to be a one-off cost. On a four-nations basis, we have developed some guidance documents. There are four sets of guidance: smoke-free generation, vaping and nicotine products, vending machines and fixed penalty notices. Those guidance documents were shared in draft form with a wide range of business and retail organisations in Northern Ireland in order to seek their input and enable them to raise queries as part of the development of the guidance documents. We will continue to engage. We recently emailed out to retail organisations again with an offer to meet them to update them further.

The Chairperson (Mr McGuigan): OK; that is fair enough.

Councils will be expected to enforce the new laws. Are you content that they have the resources to do that? There is no point in having laws if they are not enforced.

Ms Heaney: Yes. We have set up a joint implementation group, which is chaired by the chief environmental health officer in the Department of Health. That group has representation from the councils' tobacco control officers and consumer protection officers, as well as from the Department and the Public Health Agency. As part of the tobacco control strategy, the Public Health Agency funds the 12 tobacco control officers, who are based in councils, across Northern Ireland. That joint implementation group has been meeting every six weeks. Just this morning, I was at an engagement event with tobacco control officers from the councils in order to brief them on the provisions that are commencing in October.

The Chairperson (Mr McGuigan): Linda, were you looking to come in on this?

Mrs Dillon: My question has been answered. I had a concern about how the councils would do it, but that has been answered. Thank you.

Mr Donnelly: I have discussed the matter with some young people. The Northern Ireland Youth Assembly was very helpful in our investigations to do with the Bill, last year or the year before. Recently, I talked to some young people, and they noted a rise in snus and tobacco pouches. You mentioned "other nicotine products". Do those include snus and tobacco pouches?

Ms Heaney: Yes. Although a lot of young people call nicotine pouches "snus", snus is an oral tobacco product that is banned in the UK. Currently, nicotine pouches can be purchased by under-18s, but they are within the scope of the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026. As of 29 October, therefore, it will be illegal to sell those products to under-18s. Buying on behalf of somebody under the age of 18 through proxy purchasing will also be prohibited.

Dr Seán Garland (Department of Health): Yes.

Mr Donnelly: What about the advertising and marketing of them?

Ms Heaney: The Secretary of State has the power to make regulations in relation to advertising and marketing, and he announced that they will commence on 1 June next year.

Dr Garland: That is right.

Ms Heaney: Those regulations will be UK-wide, introduced by the Secretary of State on behalf of the whole of the UK. That will extend the existing tobacco regulations to cover vapes and other nicotine products within the scope of the Act.

Mr Donnelly: They will include all those products as well.

Dr Garland: Yes.

Mr Donnelly: OK. That answers my question. Thank you.

The Chairperson (Mr McGuigan): Thank you very much. We are happy with that.