Identified cases of illegal vaping products being in possession of, stocked, or sold by businesses or individuals - Find a freedom of information request

1. How many units of e-cigarettes/vaping devices/e-liquid goods were seized in total across the time periods?

2. How many units of cigarette packs were seized?

3. The number of identified cases of illegal vaping products being in possession of, stocked, or sold by businesses or individuals How many (count of) fines or penalties have been issued for being in possession of, stocking, or selling illegal vapes?

4. What was the value in £ pound sterling of each fine issued by your local authority?

5. How many retailers have been given premises closure orders in relation to illegal vape operations?

Please present this data annually for each of the below periods:

1st January 2024 > 17th October 2024

1st January 2023 > 31st Dec 2023

1st January 2022 > 31st Dec 2022

1st January 2021 > 31st Dec 2021

1st January 2020 > 31st Dec 2020

If you could send the information over in a CSV or XLSX format, that would be ideal.

Please note: if you are unable to retrieve 5 years of data for the above-requested information within the available FOI cost limit, please reduce the number of years to the last 3 years, or as far back as possible, to the latest available date.

1-2. Please see table below

Please note that Lincolnshire Trading Standards only began recording vapes separately from other unsafe products in 2022.

3. 2022 – 15 seizures from 15 premises

    2023 – 34 seizures from 27 premises

    2024 - 52 seizures from 40 premises

4-5.  In relation to the number of fines issued, please refer to table below. Please note:

• Lincolnshire Trading Standards do not issue fines to businesses distributing non-compliant vapes, such as on the spot penalty notices. Fines would be issued through criminal cases taken through the courts by Lincolnshire Trading Standards. As such, cases can take a long time to reach an outcome at court, not all cases will have concluded and so the below does not always relate to the year the product was seized.

*Includes those arising from prosecutions for underage sales of vapes

6. 2022 – 12 closure orders issued to 8 premises

    2023 – 23 closure orders issued to 21 premises

    2024 - 62 closure orders issued to 50 premises