Health charity responds to budget decisions on tobacco and vaping

This will maintain the current financial incentive to choose vaping over smoking.

Vaping excise duty

A 12-week consultation on the policy design and technical details was launched today. Registrations for the vaping duty will open on April 1, 2026.

The rates will be:

Tobacco tax changes

The government will also introduce a one-off tobacco duty increase of £2.00 per 100 cigarettes or 50 grams of tobacco from October 1, 2026.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health, said, “Putting excise duty on vapes gives much needed additional powers to Border Force and HMRC to stop the import of illegal vapes which are flooding the market and need to be brought under control. These are powers they already have for tobacco which helped reduce the consumption of illegal cigarettes by 80 per cent between 2000 and 2021.

“The additional increase in tobacco taxes is welcome, as keeping vaping cheaper than smoking is vital to encourage smokers trying to quit to switch to vapes, which are the most effective stop smoking aid available over the counter.

“However, it’s smokers and those trying to quit and stay quit who will be paying these extra taxes. It takes the average smoker thirty attempts before they successfully quit, and specialist support and anti-smoking campaigns can increase the likelihood of success many times over. These new taxes should be used to plug the cuts in prevention measures and help the government achieve its smokefree 2030 ambition.”