The Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 (Consequential, Transitional and Saving Provisions) (Scotland) Regulations 2026

Explanatory note

Reproduced verbatim from the instrument as published on legislation.gov.uk (Crown Copyright, Open Government Licence v3.0). The note is prepared by the responsible government department and is not part of the instrument itself.

These Regulations make provision in consequence of the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 (“ the 2026 Act ”).

Section 56 of the 2026 Act extends the scope of various provisions in the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010 (“ the 2010 Act ”) that apply to tobacco products to include herbal smoking products. This includes age of sale restrictions. Section 61 of the 2026 Act extends various existing offences in the 2010 Act which apply to vaping products to nicotine products and changes references from “nicotine vapour product” to “vaping product” so that the definitions are consistent across the UK. Schedule 8 of the 2026 Act also amends the 2010 Act to change references from “nicotine vapour product” to “vaping product” to ensure alignment. Part 2 of the Regulations makes amendments to secondary legislation in consequence of these provisions to ensure that all relevant products are covered and ensure consistent alignment of definitions.

Section 54 of the 2026 Act repeals the offence of purchasing tobacco products by a person under the age of 18 and section 55 repeals the offence of a person under 18 failing to comply with a confiscation request. Regulation 6 (Part 3) makes amendments to the Sale of Tobacco (Registration of Moveable Structures and Fixed Penalty Notices) (Scotland) Regulations 2011 in consequence of those provisions. The amendments ensure that there are no longer prescribed fixed penalties for the repealed offences.

Part 4 of the Regulations makes amendments in consequence of provision in the 2026 Act (section 69 and schedule 9) which extends Chapter 2 (register of tobacco and vaping product retailers) of Part 1 of the 2010 Act so that retailers selling herbal smoking products and nicotine products are subject to the same registration requirements as retailers who sell tobacco and vaping products. Once the amendments to the 2010 Act take effect, tobacco businesses, herbal smoking product businesses, vaping product businesses and nicotine product businesses will all be “registrable” businesses and the council will have the power to apply to the sheriff for a “banning order” which is an order banning a person from carrying on a registrable business from premises within the council’s area. The amendments made by regulations 7 and 8 of the Regulations update relevant existing secondary legislation so that it refers to registrable businesses.

The transitional provision in regulation 9(2) ensures that a person who is subject to an existing tobacco and vaping product banning order which was made before 29 October 2026 will still be required to declare that in an application to be registered, in accordance with regulation 3(b) of the Sale of Tobacco (Register of Tobacco Retailers) Regulations 2010. The saving provision in regulation 9(3) means that the old form of notice will continue to apply for notices relating to existing tobacco and vaping product banning orders.

Regulation 10 makes an amendment in consequence of the change to the age of sale made by section 52 of the 2026 Act which comes into force on 1 January 2027.