This week I was hoping to be able to bring you some happy news about Lord Callanan’s Fatal Motion for the Tobacco Products Directive (TPD) in the House of Lords, but it seems that a change to his plan has in fact occurred. No one believed it possible, but Lord Callanan has changed his fatal motion to remove the TPD from UK law to a simple regret motion. This means that nothing will change, the House can regret as much as they like with a 100% vote of support, but nothing will change in law.

The change was noticed a few days ago by some eagle eyed vapers on the House of Lords debate schedule. The notice has now become:

Lord Callanan to move that this House regrets that the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 place restrictions on product choice and advertising of vaping devices were devised before evidence had accumulated that vaping was enabling many people to quit smoking, run counter to advice from the Royal College of Physicians to promote vaping and are so severe that they could force vapers back to smoking and create a black market with harmful products; and calls upon Her Majesty’s Government to withdraw them (SI 2015/507).

Lord Callanan is not the only member of The Lords feeling regretful about the TPD though; Baroness Walmsley has put forward her own Regret motion concerning the advertising ban:

Baroness Walmsley to move that, in the light of the prohibition of commercial advertising of vaping devices in the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 and the proven public health benefit to former smokers of switching to vaping devices, confirmed by the advice from the Royal College of Physicians that vaping is 95 per cent less harmful than smoking tobacco, and that half of all tobacco smokers die from smoking-related causes, this House regrets that the advertising ban would hinder e-cigarettes from being promoted as a way of assisting smokers to stop smoking tobacco, and that concerns regarding the restriction of the nicotine concentration of the vapour have not been properly addressed (SI 2015/507).

And Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Regret has put his concerns about the impact of the TPD and any negative effect it will have on those choosing to vape rather than smoke:
Lord Hunt of Kings Heath to move that, in the light of the concerns about the impact of the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 on the use of electronic cigarettes, this House regrets that there is not a monitoring mechanism in place to measure whether the Regulations will have a negative impact on the number of smokers using electronic cigarettes to give up smoking; that the Regulations are not to be accompanied by a public information campaign to reassure smokers that electronic cigarettes are less harmful than normal smoking; that smoking cessation services are being cut back at the same time as the Regulations are being introduced; and that the Regulations are due for implementation before the Government has published their tobacco strategy (SI 2015/507).

Lord Callanan hasn’t yet said openly the reasons for his change of motion from Fatal to Regret, but it is believed that it was because he didn’t have enough support from amongst the Labour Lords. The Regret debates are expected on or before the 15th of June.