Business Advice

Tobacco and Vapes Bill 

On the 5 November 2024 the Government introduced the Tobacco and Vapes Bill at Westminster.

The Bill aims to introduce a progressive smoking ban to gradually end the sale of tobacco products across the UK, so that anyone born on or after 1st January 2009 will never be able to legally be sold cigarettes.  This means there will be no restrictions on people who can already legally smoke.

The Bill strengthens enforcement activity including the extension of the Tobacco Retailers Register to include vapes and other nicotine products.  It also includes provision to allow for the introduction of a retail licensing scheme in the longer term to replace the Registration scheme.  This will be subject to public consultation.

In addition, the new Bill includes further welcome enhancements including the extension of existing tobacco advertising, sponsorship and brand-sharing rules to include cigarette papers, herbal smoking products, vaping products and other nicotine products.  The legislation will also allow regulations to be made to extend smoke-free provisions in public outdoor places (or workplaces) and to make smoke-free places also vape-free and heated tobacco-free.

Minister Nesbitt said:

“The proposed measures in this Bill offer a huge public health opportunity to reduce preventable death and illness.  This is particularly important in communities where the prevalence of tobacco use is the largest contributor to health inequalities. Reducing these health inequalities across Northern Ireland is one of my key areas of focus and I am positive this legislation will make a very significant difference going forward.”  

Sale of Disposable Vapes To Be Banned 

The sale of disposable vapes will be banned in England from the 1 June 2025.

The Environmental Protection (Single-use Vapes) (England) Regulations 2024 SI 2024 No. 1216 have now been published. 

Part 2 prohibits the supply, offer for supply or possession for supply of single-use vapes. Breach of these prohibitions is an offence (regulation 4), subject to the mutual recognition principle in the United Kingdom Internal Market Act 2020 (c. 27) where applicable.

A civil sanctions regime enables regulators to impose a range of civil sanctions (regulation 9 and the Schedule). These are fixed monetary penalties, compliance notices, stop notices and enforcement undertakings. The Regulations make provision for the procedure relating to these sanctions and the available appeal mechanisms. Failure to comply with a stop notice is an offence (paragraph 16 of the Schedule). All appeals relating to a civil sanction are to the First-tier Tribunal.

Regulations 8 and 10 provide for enforcement officers to have powers of entry to carry out the necessary investigations in order to determine whether an offence has been committed.

Regulation 11 provides for the Secretary of State to give a direction for the disposal or other treatment of single-use vapes in respect of which an offence has been committed. Regulation 12 provides for publication of information on enforcement action taken by regulators. Regulation 13 provides that guidance relating to the use of civil sanctions must be prepared and consulted on, and specifies information to be included in such guidance. Regulation 14 contains provision for review of the Regulations.

Regulators are able to recover the costs of enforcement in the case of compliance notices and stop notices and must issue guidance about their use of enforcement cost recovery notices.

Organic Claims for Foods

The Organic Products Regulations 2009 SI 2009 No 842. require that businesses must be certified by an approved UK organic control body if they produce, prepare, store, import, export or sell organic food in the UK.

They can only label food as ‘organic’, or use terms relating to organic production methods, if:

• it meets organic production rules
• at least 95% of the agricultural ingredients are organic
• all other ingredients, additives and processing aids are listed as permitted within the organic regulations
  the product, 
• its labels and any suppliers are certified by an approved UK organic control body
  Contact your control body for guidance on organic production rules.

Other terms relating to organic methods include:

• ‘organically grown’
• ‘organically produced’
• ‘grown or produced using organic principles’
• ‘grown or produced using organic methods’

The rules also apply to company names or brand names. For example, you could not use the name ‘Smith’s Organic’ for a non-organic product or business. For further information on the requirements go to Gov.uk or Business Companion

Environmental Claims 

To access guidance on the legality of environmental claims go to the CMA 

Food Safety Ratings

Businesses have a general duty not to undertake unfair trading practices under the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (SI 2008 No.1277) (CPRs).

The CPRs aid in determining whether certain advertising and marketing practices are misleading, aggressive or lack due diligence.

In addition to this general duty, there are 31 business practices that are banned outright, such as displaying a quality mark without authorisation.

The aim of the CPRs is to provide a framework for determining whether certain practices are misleading, aggressive or lack due diligence on the basis that they would alter the behaviour of the average customer. In other words, if it can be determined that the customer made a purchase that they otherwise would not have done if they knew the full facts of the matter, then the business has engaged in unfair practices.

This covers engaging in misleading practices such as making false or deceptive statements in marketing material, or omitting important information that would have a bearing on the customer’s purchasing decision. For complete clarity this includes the display of a a false and outdated food safety rating. 

To see a related press item go to BBC News. 

Safety Alert: Water Beads

On the 20 September 2024, the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) issued a Safety Alert to warn of the risks that water beads can pose to children and vulnerable adults. This follows action taken by OPSS to remove unsafe products from the market.

The Safety Alert advises that water beads should be kept away from young children, under 5 years of age, and only used with older children or vulnerable adults under close supervision.

Water beads are beads that can expand up to 400 times their original size when exposed to liquid. They are marketed for various purposes, including for use as toys, in crafting, as home decor or in floristry. They are sold under a variety of names including, but not limited to, jelly balls, water balls, sensory beads or water crystals.

When swallowed, water beads expand and can block the gastrointestinal passage which can then require surgery. The beads can also cause choking and have harmed children in the UK, with reports linking them to deaths overseas. Water beads can be difficult to detect and do not show up in x-ray.

Read the Safety Alert for water beads.

Read Product Safety Reports for specific water bead products where action has been taken.

E-Bikes and E-Scooters Fire Safety Advice

E-bikes and e-scooters are becoming increasingly popular. Most are powered by lithium-ion batteries which can be charged in the home. The use of these batteries in a wide range of household products is becoming increasingly common.

It is important when charging e-bikes and e-scooters, you do so safely to avoid a risk of a fire starting and putting your families and homes at risk.

With an increased use of e-bikes and e-scooters, comes a corresponding fire safety concern associated with their charging and storage. The use of these products is expected to continue to rise. Some fire services and fire investigators have seen a rise in e-bike and e-scooter battery fires.

Currently there is limited data relating to the number of fires, but London Fire Brigade reported 8 fires caused by e-bikes and e-scooters in 2019. This rose to twenty-four in 2020 and fifty-nine by December 2021.

On occasions batteries can fail catastrophically, they can ‘explode’ and/or lead to a rapidly developing fire. For media stories go to: BBC News and Sky News of the 27 July 2023 and the Chronicle of the 31 July 2023. 

For further information go to NFCC and to  access the OPSS safety poster (pdf 203 kb).  

Pricing Survey

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has now reviewed the way a range of grocery retailers displayed their prices in-store to assess whether they were clear, accurate and matched the price people were charged at the till.

The review looked at the price marking practices of 139 grocery stores in England and Wales, including supermarket chains, symbol convenience stores (small, independent retailers that operate under a symbol brand name), variety stores and independent food stores.

The CMA conducted on-site inspections and looked at a sample of products – such as fresh fruit and vegetables and products on promotion. During inspections at some stores, the CMA found examples where the retailer was displaying inaccurate prices or failed to display prices at all for certain products. Failing to provide clear and accurate pricing information for products on sale is a breach of consumer law.

Overall, the majority of issues were found at independent food stores and symbol convenience stores. The most common types of issues seen were missing prices, conflicting prices (instances where prices indicated on products conflicted with those shown on shelf edge labels) and prices not being displayed sufficiently close to products.

There were also issues with prices not being clearly legible, the selling price being obscured, and multibuy promotion labels that didn’t specify the price of the items individually.

The percentage of pricing errors found at each type of store were:

Supermarkets: 4.2%
Symbol convenience stores: 14.4%
Variety stores: 5.6%
Independent food stores: 7.8%
Overall, 60% of the errors resulted in a higher price being charged at the till. Further breakdowns by store type can be found in the report. For further detail go to CMA. To access a Poster (pdf 2.6 mb)

Proposed Ban on Wet Wipes

On the 22 April 2024 the Government will introduce new world-leading legislation to ban wet wipes containing plastic. Defra intend to bring forward the legislation for England ahead of summer recess, with Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales following by the autumn as part of an aligned approach to bring the ban into force.

Wet wipes containing plastic break down into microplastics over time, which research shows can be harmful to human health and disrupt our ecosystems – with a recent survey showing an average of 20 wet wipes were found per 100 metres of beach surveyed across the UK.

Once in our water environment, wet wipes containing plastic can accumulate biological and chemical pollutants, increasing the risk of harm to the animals and humans who encounter them. Banning them will reduce plastic and microplastic pollution and reduce the volume of microplastics entering wastewater treatment sites when wrongly flushed – meaning our beaches and waterways will benefit from the ban.

EU Exit

Updated guidance on the latest changes can be found on Gov.uk   

Illegal Activity

The job of the Trading Standards Service is to protect consumers and legitimate businesses in Newcastle upon Tyne. To do this we enforce government legislation, provide advice for businesses, deal with thousands of consumer complaints and business enquiries every year and investigate and prosecute offenders.

To report someone you suspect of selling illegal goods please:

• report illegal commercial activity online

We have over 8,000 business premises in Newcastle and these include farms, importers, multinational chains and independent start-ups. Before you get started on a new venture, or if you just want to make sure you're doing the right thing, Trading Standards can advise you on the legal requirements of compliance.

Guidance for businesses can be found at Business Companion which offers information on basics of the law, through to in-depth assistance. If you have a specific query, please contact us directly. 

Dealers in second-hand goods within Newcastle must register with the authority under the City of Newcastle upon Tyne Act 2000.

For more information on the work we do, please see our Business Service Plan page. 

Newsletter

The Trading Standards service with the aim of providing updates on our work, produces a newsletter twice a year. To access a copy of our newsletter go to High Standard (pdf 1.5 mb).

Contact

Trading Standards service, Directorate of City Operations, Neighbourhoods and Regulatory Services, Civic Centre, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 8QH. Email: tradingstandards@newcastle.gov.uk