Britain's leading anti-smoking charity is urging the Government to hide vapes away like cigarettes, despite a warning on its own website that doing so could stop smokers from quitting.
Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) and the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training (NCSCT), the body that trains stop smoking advisers, are collecting signatures for an open letter to the Health Secretary. It urges the Government to push through its plans for vape packaging and display "in full" before the public consultation closes at 11:59pm on Friday 2 October.
In full means plain white packs. Vapes in black, white or grey only. And every vape shut away behind the counter in sealed gantries, exactly like cigarettes.
The problem is that ASH has already told us what it thinks of that last part.
ASH's own warning
On its own website, in its guide to this consultation, ASH says: "we are concerned that a total display ban would treat nicotine products the same as tobacco products and risks undermining the role of vapes for smoking cessation."
We agree with that warning. Yet the same guide tells members of the public to "Select agree to all questions" on that section anyway. The open letter doesn't mention the concern at all.
"Cochrane review found high-certainty evidence that nicotine vapes help more people quit than patches or gum."
This isn't a new position for ASH either. Three years ago, in its response to the Government's 2023 vaping consultation, ASH called for age-restricted specialist vape shops to be exempt from a ban on in-store promotion.
Why it matters: confusion is costing quit attempts
Here's the part that should worry everyone.
ASH's own survey this year found that 61 per cent of smokers who have never tried a vape now wrongly believe it is as harmful as smoking, or more so. In 2019 that figure was 27 per cent.
ASH's chief executive, Hazel Cheeseman, has warned that misconceptions like this "are acting as a barrier to switching among people who smoke". She's right. And the evidence on switching is not in doubt. Last month's updated Cochrane review found high-certainty evidence that nicotine vapes help more people quit than patches or gum.
"Let licensed, adult-only specialist shops keep their displays, just as specialist tobacconists already do."
So we have a quit aid that works, a public that increasingly believes it's as dangerous as smoking, and a health charity whose own research shows the gap widening. Making vapes look, sit and sell like cigarettes won't close that gap. ASH's own guidance says as much.
The people who help smokers switch
The NCSCT's own guidance, Working with vape shops, last reviewed in September 2025, encourages stop smoking services to consider building a relationship with their local vape shop. Some services already send clients there for cheaper starter kits. The guide says specialist shops "will be more likely to possess accurate knowledge", and that "specialist retailers with premises have too much to lose" by selling non-compliant goods.
Those are exactly the shops that would have to hide every product under the plans the NCSCT is now backing in full.
What the polling actually asked
The open letter cites polling showing 79 per cent support for banning sweet names, cartoons and bright colours on vape packaging, and 71 per cent for banning flavour names that appeal to children.
We support both of those. But look at what wasn't asked. Nobody was asked about plain white packs, grey-only devices or removing the accurate flavour descriptions adults rely on.
ASH says it also has new YouGov polling showing strong public support for extending tobacco packaging laws, which it is holding back until the letter is published. We have no argument with tougher rules on tobacco. The question is why vapes, the product helping millions of people give tobacco up, should be dressed the same way.
What the letter leaves out: protecting children
We share the goal of keeping vapes away from children, which is why the letter's biggest gap worries us most. It says nothing about enforcement.
This summer our Freedom of Information requests to 21 Trading Standards services found that the average officer carries out 2.31 underage test purchases a year, one every five months. On those figures, a shop that could sell a vape to a child gets checked about once every eleven years.
That isn't the fault of Trading Standards officers, who enforce more than 300 laws with the staff they have. Nobody has ever set how often shops should be checked, and a white box won't change that.
"Aggressive industry lobbying"
In the email that sent the letter out, the NCSCT's chief executive told colleagues the plans "are under attack from aggressive tobacco and nicotine industry lobbying".
We're the industry, and we've never pretended otherwise. Riot is British owned, with no tobacco industry ownership or funding, and every figure we rely on is published at savevaping.co.uk/data, council by council. What we're asking for is more regulation of the people who sell our products, not less.
What we think would actually work
- License every shop that sells vapes, using the scheme already passed in the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 and never switched on, and take the licence away from any shop caught selling to a child.
- Set a legal minimum for how often shops are checked, the way food hygiene already has.
- Ban anything designed to appeal to kids: cartoons, sweet names and toy-like designs.
- Let licensed, adult-only specialist shops keep their displays, just as specialist tobacconists already do.
That protects children better than a plain pack, and it doesn't tell another smoker that a vape is as dangerous as a cigarette.
Have your say before Friday
The consultation closes at 11:59pm on Friday 2 October. After that, the decision gets made without you.
The quickest way to take part is at savevaping.co.uk. It takes about ten minutes and walks you through three things: emailing your MP, answering the consultation in your own words, and joining the Relapse Register, a record of former smokers who say these rules would put them at risk of going back to cigarettes. There's no template wording, because identical answers are counted as one.
If vaping helped you quit, now is the time to say so.
