General election 2024: What does this mean for the Tobacco and Vapes Bill?

On Wednesday Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced that this year’s highly anticipated general election will be held on 4 July.  

At Cancer Research UK, we’ve been actively supporting the progress of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill. This proposed legislation would mean that people born since the start of 2009 would never legally be sold tobacco products. 

If the Age of Sale legislation were to be successfully implemented across the UK, up to 9.7 million fewer cigarettes would be smoked per day by 2040. 

But the general election announcement has had an impact on the progression of this vital bill through parliament. So, what’s the latest? 

What has happened to the bill? 

The bill had been voted through during the second reading in The House of Commons with the majority of MPs voting in favour. The bill had also gone through the committee stage,  where key witnesses – including our CEO Michelle Mitchell  – had given evidence. 

With the announcement of the General Election, Parliament only had two days to attempt to get through any bills that had not been completed – a process called ‘wash-up’. 

Unfortunately, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill had not progressed far enough through the parliamentary process for this to have been possible, so the bill was not able to receive Royal Assent. 

What are the possible next steps? 

While this is a backward step, the Bill not making it into wash-up does not reflect a lack of political will to pass it. 

Through the votes and committee stages the Bill passed through during this parliamentary session it received cross-party support, reflecting widespread public support for action.   

We expect the key provisions will be supported in the party manifestos and, whichever party wins the election, will commit to including it in their first King’s Speech (which outlines their legislative programme).  

We have welcomed statements from both Conservative and Labour that they will deliver on the intended age-of-sale restrictions following the election. 

This is one of the key asks of Cancer Research UK’s manifesto: Longer, better lives – we now look to all parties deliver against that ask and explicitly commit to legislation to bring about the smokefree generation in their manifestos ahead of the election. 

What does this mean for the devolved nations? 

Cancer Research UK welcomed the positive four nation approach to introducing this bill. 

Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales have been progressing well with their legislative process for this bill, which includes voting on whether they would agree to include it in their legislative frameworks. We have in fact already seen parties in Northern Ireland vote positively for this bill on the 21 May and were looking forward to Scotland and Wales setting their dates to vote on the bill too.  

However, as the Tobacco and Vapes Bill will not progress before the General Election, we will need to wait until it is hopefully reintroduced after the election to begin this process again, to ensure that every UK nation protects future generations from the considerable harms caused by tobacco. 

Continuing the campaign for a Smokefree UK 

While this is incredibly disappointing news for everyone who has been tirelessly campaigning for this bill, we believe this is a bump in the road, rather than the end of it. 

At Cancer Research UK we will be working hard to make the case that the next government should bring this vital bill back to Parliament without delay as part of the first King’s Speech

This legislation could give the UK the chance to become a world leader, and help to create the first ever smokefree generation, where cancers caused by smoking could become a thing of the past.