North Yorkshire introduces £100 on-the-spot fines under new vaping laws

New legislation that introduces fixed penalty notices for certain offences involving tobacco and vape products, with penalties set at £200, reducing to £100 if paid within 14 days, has been adopted by North Yorkshire Council.

It comes ahead of the introduction of new powers under the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026, which comes into force on October 29.

However, council officers warned that the fines are unlikely to deter serious offenders involved in illegal tobacco and vape sales.

A report to councillors states that many sellers of illegal tobacco and vape products are linked to organised crime and that, in some cases, fixed penalties could simply become a cost of doing business rather than an effective deterrent.

Speaking at the meeting, the council’s executive member for managing the environment, Cllr Richard Foster, said: “The main reason is the Tobacco and Vapes Act, which allows our teams to issue fixed penalty notices for minor issues.

“It’s a small part of what we can do, and we have bigger powers for people who are offending regularly, but this would be for an employee in a shop who doesn’t know the rules.”

The new powers come amid growing concern about illegal vape sales in Scarborough.

Earlier this month, councillors questioned Trading Standards officers about enforcement activity and the increasing number of vape shops in parts of the town.

Officers told the meeting they regularly investigate complaints relating to illegal tobacco and vape products and often carry out test purchases and inspections in response to intelligence received from residents, businesses and partner agencies.

A new council report said fixed penalty notices would primarily be used in lower-level cases, such as where a shop employee had inadvertently breached the rules, while prosecution would continue to be considered for more serious or repeated offending.

The policy update also highlights the growing role of online enforcement.

Councillors were told that North Yorkshire Council, working alongside City of York Council, hosts the National Trading Standards e-Crime Team, which works with online service providers to remove websites suspected of misleading consumers.

Cllr Foster said: “We work alongside York and we host the National Trading Standards e-Crime Team and we’ve got a protocol between online service providers and ourselves, so we can get them to take down websites that we think are trading unfairly.

“A lot of them are based in Europe or elsewhere and are sub-standard products, so we can ask for websites to be taken down, and we get about 20 complaints a month.”

According to the council report, many complaints involve websites presenting themselves as UK-based businesses while supplying poor-quality, misdescribed or, in some cases, undelivered goods from overseas.

Deputy leader Cllr Mark Crane welcomed the strengthened enforcement powers.

“I think this is good news, well done to the team, because people deserve to be protected wherever possible,” he said.

The revised enforcement policy was unanimously approved by councillors.