London does not have the enforcement capacity needed to crack down on retailers selling vapes to minors, a senior official has warned.
Almost a fifth of 11 to 17-year-olds nationally reported that they have tried vaping, while six per cent said they ‘currently’ did so.
Data suggests underage vaping increased significantly between 2021-2023, though has since plateaued.
Shops are able to make a “significant profit” on the products, the London Assembly Health Committee was told by experts last week, meaning some retailers turn a blind eye to who their customers are.
However, years of austerity has eroded the capital’s enforcement capacity to a critical point, according to John Herriman, the Chief Executive of Chartered Trading Standards Institute – who said some London boroughs were left with a single staff member at one point.
Trading Standards officers tackle underage vaping through conducting “test purchases” to check if retailers are illegally selling to children, providing guidance to businesses to help them comply with the law.
They have the power to seize illicit products and issue closure notices against persistent offenders.
In a rapid one-off review of sales compliance by the Chartered Trading Standards Institute of 422 test purchases of disposable vapes made by young people, illegal sales were made on 33 per cent of purchases.
“Trading standards has been hit by austerity hard because of the budget cutbacks that have impacted local government essentially,” Mr Herriman said, noting that regulatory services were cut by 23 per cent between 2010 and 2025, with Trading Standards suffering a 39 per cent reduction in the same period.
“Trading Standards has been hit almost twice as hard as other regulatory services,” he added.
“The consequence when funding doesn’t go into Trading Standards is quite significant. It won’t be seen immediately – it’ll be seen over a period of time.
“We don’t believe that serious and organised crime would have been able to get the foothold that it has on the high street had there been the boots on the ground of Trading Standards over that period, because serious and organised crime wouldn’t have had the opportunity to get a toehold, let alone a foothold.
“There are some Trading Standards services that have been hit really, really hard.
“In London, Enfield went down to one Trading Standards officer. Thankfully, they’ve built back up slightly now.
“So that’s been encouraging, but you also get real variation in London between some boroughs that can have two to three, and Tower Hamlets where they had 11 or 12.
“It just depends on the strategic prioritisation with regard to Trading Standards.
“There are less than 2,500 Trading Standards officers trying to enforce effectively 300 pieces of legislation. And when they’re cut back, they are forced to deprioritise stuff that should be a priority, and those are the consequences that we see.”
The Tobacco and Vapes Act, passed in May 2026, aims to reduce vaping and prevent the next generation from ever being able to buy cigarettes.
One of the key changes in the legislation is the introduction of a mandatory licensing scheme for all retailers selling vapes – though this will have to be monitored and enforced by under-resourced Trading Standard teams.
Assembly Members also heard that the proliferation of youth vaping rates both in London and the UK was driven by a “new wave of disposable vaping products” earlier this decade.
Though disposable products were banned last year, ministers are still consulting on powers in the Tobacco and Vapes Act which could affect rules around the packaging and product design.
John Waldron, Policy and Public Affairs Manager at Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said: “We can learn lessons from our success in reducing rates of youth smoking, which was driven by banning advertising, plain packaging, banning marketing, restricting these products at the point of sale in shops to put them out of sight, increasing the price through taxation.
All of these things were effective in reducing youth smoking rates to record lows, and I think we can be confident the same will be true for youth vaping.”
The Mayor also has a major role to play in discouraging youth vaping, Regional Director of Public Health Professor Kevin Fenton said.
This includes “continuing his advocacy for reducing smoking, tobacco control, and reducing youth vaping, using the voice of the Mayor and the voice of the GLA to ensure that they’re behind the Tobacco and Vapes Act, behind the principles and the interventions which will be included in the Vapes Act, and supporting local authorities in its implementation,” he added.
Last year Sir Sadiq Khan told the London Assembly: “I am supportive of action to tackle the rise in youth vaping to help protect our children’s health, and our environment.
“That’s why I support the Government’s current regulations and welcome newer ones, which I understand come into effect this year, including powers for local authorities to tackle youth vaping.”
The Department for Health and Social Care were contacted for comment.
