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BBC News, England
BBCThousands of instances of youngsters being illegally offered vapes had been recorded by means of councils between 2022 and 2024. One manner native government catch dealers red-handed is by means of sending undercover youngsters into stores throughout England. We spoke to a couple of those that spend their loose time seeking to catch regulation breakers within the act.
Oliver is 15 and has been check buying nicotine vapes for 3 years. None of his pals know what he does. We don’t seem to be the use of his actual title.
He says whilst many stores refuse to promote him vapes, he has effectively purchased them “countless” instances. When he’s offered one, he fingers it to a buying and selling requirements officer ready outdoor the store.
“We just go in, ask for it and they just hand it straight over. Don’t ask anything,” he says. “Sometimes they’re more sneaky. Try hand it to you in secret, make sure no-one notices.”
‘Like purchasing illicit medication’
Oliver says on one instance, a store employee informed him to attend outdoor and “walked back out with a brown paper bag, concealing the fact he had given me a vape. It felt really dodgy.
“You really feel like you are now not purchasing a vape. At that time, it is like you are purchasing illicit medication.”
The Independent British Vape Trade Association says the majority of purposed vape shops operate within the law, serving adults that would otherwise be smoking.
Of the 136 trading standards bodies in England, 133 responded to Freedom of Information requests from the BBC. Between 2022 and 2024, they recorded at least:
- 3,774 reports of shops selling vapes to children, with some retailers potentially caught more than once. This is based on both test purchases and complaints from the community.
- 67 instances of a shop being closed due to, at least in part, the selling of vapes to children. Many of those closures were temporary and some retailers may have been shut down more than once.
These figures do not account for the number of shops selling vapes in the area or the number of vapes sold.
Selling nicotine vapes to under-18s is prohibited in the United Kingdom. The executive says nicotine vapes raise the chance of damage and dependancy, which is “in particular acute for children, whose brains are nonetheless creating”.
Oliver became a test purchaser because vaping is “turning into a larger and larger drawback as time is going on”, he says.
Now in Year 11, he thinks about a quarter of his school year is vaping and the toilets often “stink” as a result of it.
“I assumed I may just lend a hand out, see if I may just get numbers down a bit of, so I do no matter I will to lend a hand prevent it,” he says.
Katie (not her real name) also goes undercover as a test purchaser. The 13-year-old says lots of pupils in her year use vapes or sell them to their peers at school, out of sight of the teachers.
The trick to test purchasing, she says, is to act with confidence. “You’ve simply were given to take a look at and chill out – remember the fact that you are now not within the incorrect and you are simply doing it to end up some degree and for a objective.”
If shop workers agree to sell vapes, she says “we’re going to seize the product, stroll out and return to the van”, where trading standards officers will be waiting.
Oliver and Katie enjoy taking part in test purchases. “You know that it is if truth be told creating a distinction and that over the years this distinction can if truth be told be observed,” Oliver says.
How do test purchases work?
Trading Standards, London Borough of Barking and DagenhamNazir Ali is a service manager with trading standards in the east London borough of Barking and Dagenham. He helps to organise underage test purchases of vapes.
“We ship in an undercover officer that is going in and acts like an ordinary buyer,” he explains, “simply to control the younger check buyer”.
If the test purchaser is refused a sale, they should walk out of the shop “with out interacting with the officer within the store”, Nazir says. If the sale takes place, the child hands the product to another trading standards officer waiting outside.
Trading standards will speak to the seller and, if needs be, interview them on the spot under caution and speak to the company’s director.
They may then be written to or invited to come to the office for a formal interview process. The seller and company owner could face prosecution.
Oliver says he has had many different reactions from shop workers when trying to buy vapes.
“They can get started shouting about how your folks will probably be disillusioned with you. Some have shouted that they want to document me to the police.
“Or they’re just talking to someone else on the phone, talking to someone else in the back, and will just glance over to scan the product, take the cash, and continue on with their conversation.”
In his daily existence, Oliver says: “I don’t really have conversations with people about vaping. I think it’s awful and because the health risks are unknown it’s really dangerous.”
Nazir says in Barking and Dagenham they’ve observed a drop within the collection of vapes attaining younger folks.
“But I’m sure they find other means of buying these vapes, often online, from friends and family abroad,” he says. “There are so many ways it’s coming and reaching the young people, which we need to obviously do a lot more work around.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson mentioned the federal government’s Tobacco and Vapes Bill “introduces £200 on the spot fines to allow trading standards officers to act more quickly against anyone found to be selling tobacco or vapes to people underage”.
They mentioned the federal government used to be making an investment an additional £10m for buying and selling requirements “to tackle underage and illicit sales and stop harmful tobacco and vape products” discovering their manner into stores.
