PARENTS are blaming shops for failing to check IDs as being the root cause of underage vaping, a new survey says.
Fifty-five per cent of mums and dads say shops aren’t stringent enough in checking ages when they go into stores.
The polling comes after Ministers proposed a ban on disposable vapes as part of a drive to protect children’s health.
Rishi Sunak warned that youth vaping could become “endemic” as he announced powers to restrict vape flavours to keep under-18s away.
Some manufacturers are producing flavour such as skittles and cotton candy flavours to drive up business.
But now some 61 per cent of parents believe that giving trading standards officers new powers to issue £100 on-the-spot fines doesn’t go far enough.
Asli Ertonguc, of British American Tobacco, said: “We are clear on our responsibilities, and therefore want to have an open conversation about appropriate regulation that will tackle underage vaping while keeping vapes as a vital tool to help the UK reach its smokefree 2030 goal, an ambition that BAT supports.”
Two thousand parents of secondary school children across the country took part in the wide-ranging survey.
One furious individual who took part in the study, said: “There’s a lot of unscrupulous shopkeepers. The shops’ walls are stacked full of them, like a sweet shop.
“Why doesn’t the government send people in undercover? Give them a couple of warnings, shut them down. One particular shop near me, if it’s school time, loads of kids are puffing away outside.”
Most read in Health
A third of parents demand fines of up to £100,000 for retailers – similar to that in France – rather than the £2,500 pemalty for shopkeepers under the current rules.
The results also showed that an overwhelming 89 per cent of parents support a licencing regime for the sale of vapes.
More than nine in ten parents also back checks on products brought into the UK as part of the clampdown.
https://www.thesun.co.uk/feed/
Ryan Sabey
