Nicotine Inhaling Products - Find a freedom of information request

Under the Freedom of Information Act, I would like to request the following information related to the enforcement of the Children and Families Act 2014, as amended by The Nicotine Inhaling Products (Age of Sale and Proxy Purchasing) Regulations 2015.

Specifically, please provide me with:

1. The number of individuals who have been prosecuted in the last 12 months within your organisation's jurisdiction for the sale of nicotine inhaling products (sometimes known as 'e-cigarettes', 'vapes', or 'vapour products') to individuals aged under 18, due

to investigations conducted by Lincolnshire County Council.

2. The number of businesses and sole traders subject to any penalty in the last 12 months (including but not limited to fine, opening restrictions, removal of premises license) for the sale of nicotine inhaling products (sometimes known as 'e-cigarettes', 'vapes', or 'vapour products') to individuals aged under 18, due to investigations conducted by Lincolnshire County Council.

3. The number of shops, and other places of business (including but not limited to market stalls, 'car-boot sales' and other point of sale locations) that council employees have visited in the last 12 months for the purposes of detection and disruption of the sale of nicotine inhaling products to individuals aged under 18.

4. The number of trading standard officers employed by the council whose job description, roles and responsibilities, entail the investigation, detection, and disruption of the sale of nicotine inhaling products to individuals aged under 18 and/or the removal of illicit products from retailers.

This information can be provided as seen fit by Lincolnshire County Council in order to reduce costs.

I can confirm that the information requested is held by Lincolnshire County Council. I have detailed below the information that is being released to you.

1. Prosecutions concluded in the last 12 months – 2 individuals prosecuted (fine amounts were £1200 and £250). 1 further individual received a Home Office Caution.

Criminal prosecutions are not the only enforcement route followed by Lincolnshire Trading Standards for sellers of non-compliant vapes. Warning notices, cautions, closure orders, etc, are all other available outcomes within our enforcement policy, which takes account of previous history. The above is just those cases that have been through the courts and resulted in a fine, and does not including pending cases.

2. 31 closure orders have been issued in the last 12 months to 27 premises. These prevent businesses from opening/operating, for a maximum 3 months at a time.

During this time businesses were closed for a total 2797 days. The closure orders were made due to various issues surrounding the repeated sales of illicit vapes, and tobacco and reports of underage sales of vapes, alcohol and tobacco, not solely due to the underage sales of vapes.

3. 51 underage sales visits in the last 12 months where underage volunteers attempted to purchase vapes. A further 318 visits for the purposes of detection and disruption of vapes sales to 217 premises in total.

4. In 2023/24 there are 35.41 FTE’s employed within Lincolnshire Trading Standards. Note the FTE figures above equate to the whole of the Trading Standards Service, not those dedicated to vapes and underage sales work.

There are currently 5 FTE’s within the Tobacco and Product Safety Team whose remit includes the underage sales of vapes, as well as other duties.