Rachel Reeves considers raising tax on vapes in autumn budget
Rachel Reeves is considering raising the tax on vaping products in her budget this month as figures show that a quarter of 11 to 15-year-olds in England have used e-cigarettes.The chancellor is looking at increasing the tax after a consultation carried out by the last Conservative government.In his budget in March, Jeremy Hunt announced a tax on vaping products, which is due to take effect in October 2026, in a move to make vaping unaffordable for children.NHS figures on Thursday revealed that one in four children aged 11-15 in England tried vaping in 2023 – up from 22% two years earlier – with almost one in 10 (9%) using e-cigarettes regularly.By comparison, 11% said they had tried cigarettes.
Matt Fagg, NHS England’s director for prevention and long-term conditions, said the statistics were “incredibly concerning.It means they are at risk of becoming hooked on one of the world’s most addictive substances, and that is before we consider the longer-term impacts which are still unclear.”Andrew Gwynne, a health minister, also said the figures were worrying.“The health advice is clear that children and adult non-smokers should never vape, so it is unacceptable to see unscrupulous retailers marketing them at children,” he said.An increase in the tax on vaping products would probably go hand-in-hand with an increase in tobacco duty so as not to encourage people to switch to smoking.
The move could raise hundreds of millions of pounds for the exchequer.The vape tax as designed by Hunt is due to raise £120m in 2026-27, rising to £445m by 2028-29, according to Treasury estimates.Officials are also examining the prospect of redesigning the tax by turning it into a flat levy rather than one that varies by the nicotine strength of the product.Experts have warned that taxing high-strength products more discourages smokers from switching to vaping.A public health source said the sector had been expecting the government’s tobacco and vapes bill to be tabled at the start of this month, and that the delay could indicate changes being announced in the budget.
“The one ask from the public health sector is that if the duty on vaping is increased then the same happens for tobacco, maintaining the differential and thus the incentive to move from tobacco,” the source said,If confirmed, the change would form part of the government’s wider public health drive,Other measures announced have included a ban on junk food adverts before the 9pm watershed and a ban on children buying high-caffeine energy drinks,Chris Thomas, a research fellow at the Institute for Public Policy Research, said: “It is right that the government considers new taxes designed to disincentivise or penalise industries and products that harm health while creating revenue to invest in health creation,Sign up to First EditionOur morning email breaks down the key stories of the day, telling you what’s happening and why it mattersafter newsletter promotion“We estimate health levies on alcohol, tobacco, vapes, junk food and gambling could raise as much as £10bn by the end of the decade.
“A tax on e-cigarettes needs to balance their use as a stop smoking device against their current disproportionate appeal to children,However, there are signs that the e-cigarette market will manage to bypass the ban on disposables – and maintain the presence of colourful vapes at pocket money prices,“This gives the government scope to consider a higher level of vape duty than that proposed by the last government – to ensure vapes become harder to access for kids, but are still accessible for adults who would benefit from them,”Hazel Cheeseman, chief executive of the charity Action on Smoking and Health, said: “We opposed higher rates of tax on stronger nicotine liquids for the very reason that they are a smoking cessation tool and higher prices may put off smokers who need high strength products to quit,A flat rate would be welcome.
”More than 40 countries have introduced taxes on vaping products.A Treasury spokesperson said: “We do not comment on speculation around tax changes outside of fiscal events.” This article was amended on 18 October 2024.An earlier version said the estimates of how much a vape tax would raise came from Action on Smoking and Health when in fact they were from the Treasury.
Care home chain Care UK sold to US property investment company
One of Britain’s largest care home chains, Care UK, has been sold to an American property investment company, the Guardian can reveal, in a deal that comes as private providers lobby the government for a greater role in the NHS.Care UK, which operates more than 150 residential homes for older people, has been the subject of sale speculation since 2018.The private equity firm Bridgepoint Advisers, which paid £420m for the company in 2010, had previously tried and failed to sell the chain, which employs about 10,500 staff and was founded in 1982. It said in its 2019 accounts that it had spent £2.5m on financial advice for an “abortive” sale process
UK firms in ‘significant financial distress’ hits record levels; Gold rises over $2,700/ounce – as it happened
A record number of UK firms are fighting for their financial survival as the uncertain economic outlook hits business confidence.Restructuring specialist Begbies Traynor has reported that there were 632,756 UK businesses in ‘significant’ financial distress in the third quarter of this year – a 32% rise compared with a year earlier.Significant’ financial distress increased in almost every one of the sectors covered by the latest Red Flag Alert survey.It rose particularly rapidly among utilities companies (+19.3%), food & drug retailers (+10
Quit if you don’t like our office-working policy, Amazon executive suggests
A senior Amazon executive has suggested that staff who do not like the company’s new five-days-a-week office-working policy should quit.The head of the tech company’s cloud computing business told an internal meeting that if employees did not support the change they could look for a job elsewhere, according to a transcript reviewed by Reuters.Matt Garman, the chief executive of the Amazon Web Services (AWS) unit, said nine out of 10 workers he had spoken to supported the policy, which is effective for all office-based staff from 2 January, barring those with exceptional circumstances.He indicated that anyone unhappy with the retreat from home-working should leave. “If there are people who just don’t work well in that environment and don’t want to, that’s OK, there are other companies around,” said Garman, in the comments reported by Reuters
AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery reaching ‘tipping point’, says watchdog
Child sexual abuse imagery generated by artificial intelligence tools is becoming more prevalent on the open web and reaching a “tipping point”, according to a safety watchdog.The Internet Watch Foundation said the amount of AI-made illegal content it had seen online over the past six months had already exceeded the total for the previous year.The organisation, which runs a UK hotline but also has a global remit, said almost all the content was found on publicly available areas of the internet and not on the dark web, which must be accessed by specialised browsers.The IWF’s interim chief executive, Derek Ray-Hill, said the level of sophistication in the images indicated that the AI tools used had been trained on images and videos of real victims. “Recent months show that this problem is not going away and is in fact getting worse,” he said
New York Liberty 80-82 Minnesota Lynx: WNBA finals Game 4 – as it happened
First, the glass-half-empty way of looking at it …Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu struggled. A lot. They finished the game shooting 10-for-36. From 3-point range: 0-for-9. Stewart still had a double-double with 11 and 11, including six offensive rebounds
New Zealand beat West Indies by eight runs: Women’s T20 World Cup semi-final – as it happened
New Zealand are into their first Women’s T20 World Cup final since 2010 after withstanding an all-round onslaught from Deandra Dottin to claim a tense eight-run win over the West Indies.Dottin shone to dump out England in what was effectively a quarter-final this week and claimed four for 22 as New Zealand put up 128 for nine after deciding to bat first on another clammy evening in Sharjah.After New Zealand spinner Eden Carson claimed the wickets of Qiana Joseph, Shemaine Campbelle and Stafanie Taylor, and captain Hayley Matthews holed out off Lea Tahuhu, the Windies were on 55 for four in the 11th over.Dottin, though, muscled three sixes in an over off Tahuhu to bring the equation down to 34 off 24 balls, only to then top-edge a sweep off Amelia Kerr to depart for 33 off just 22 deliveries.West Indies needed 11 off the last five balls but Suzie Bates, bowling her first over of the tournament, held her nerve, castling Zaida James to ultimately seal victory for the White Ferns
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