The Enough is Enough Campaign: A Fair Deal for Vaping

Key summary: UKVIA has launched Enough is Enough, backed by a 10-point Fair Deal for Vaping. Its argument: government policy is punishing responsible vape shops and adult vapers, while leaving the illicit market alone – part of that argument holds up. More than half of smokers still believe vaping is as harmful as smoking, and that belief tracks the tone of media coverage far more closely than it tracks the evidence.

More UK adults now vape than smoke, for the first time on record: 5.4 million vapers against 4.9 million smokers. Ask most smokers, though, and they’ll tell you vaping is just as bad for you as the habit it’s supposed to replace. Over half believe it. That’s the belief the UK Vaping Industry Association is going after with Enough is Enough, launched on 3rd September 2026.

The campaign is built around a 10-point Fair Deal for Vaping. Its timing isn’t subtle: new taxes and tighter rules land on adult vapers from October.

Contents

• What is the Enough is Enough Campaign?
• Is Vaping Being Attacked by the Media?
• What Does the Evidence Actually Say About Vaping’s Risk?
• What’s At Stake for Adult Vapers
• The Fair Deal for Vaping: The 10 Commitments
• Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Enough is Enough Campaign?

Enough is Enough is a campaign launched on 3rd September 2026 by the UK Vaping Industry Association (UKVIA). It calls on the government to commit to 10 policy changes, a Fair Deal for Vaping, before further regulation makes vaping harder to access for adult smokers.

We’re a UKVIA member, and this is a campaign we’re backing directly, not one we’re covering from a distance. UKVIA speaks for vaping retailers and manufacturers right across the UK. John Dunne, its Director General, was blunt at launch: years of policy have gone after the legal, regulated side of the industry while the illicit vape market has grown largely unchecked.

This argument holds together. Responsible vape shops and adult vapers are carrying the cost of rules aimed at problems they didn’t create. Enough Is Enough wants the government to go after illegal traders instead of law-abiding shops, and to stop treating regulated vaping as though it’s as dangerous as smoking.

Is Vaping Being Attacked by the Media?

According to the evidence: 53% of smokers in Great Britain wrongly believe vaping is as harmful or more harmful than smoking. Among smokers who’ve never tried vaping, that rises to 61%.

This data comes from ASH and from a study of adults who smoke in England, where the share believing e-cigarettes are equally or more harmful than cigarettes passed 50% by 2023. That rise tracks two spikes in coverage almost exactly: the 2019 US lung-injury scare, which was actually about the use of vitamin E acetate in illicit THC vapes (nothing to do with regulated nicotine vaping), and the youth-vaping headlines that followed from 2021 onward. Neither event changed what vaping does to the body. Both, however, changed what people thought it did.

What Does the Evidence Actually Say About Vaping’s Risk?

Vaping carries only a small fraction of the health risks of smoking. That’s the UK government’s own position, from its 2022 evidence review, still the most recent official assessment (OHID, 2022).

It’s a narrower claim than the one you’ve probably heard. The old “95% safer than smoking” figure still does the rounds, but it’s contested, and the Royal College of Physicians dropped it. OHID’s own wording, a small fraction of the risk, holds up better, and three years on it’s still the government’s position.

Vaping isn’t risk-free, particularly if you’ve never smoked, and we absolutely advocate against non-smokers taking up vaping. But when you line it up against the misperception numbers above: smokers believe roughly the opposite of what the evidence says.

What’s At Stake for Adult Vapers

Two things hit adult vapers directly from October: a new tax charged on every millilitre of e-liquid, and flavour restrictions UKVIA says could send some vapers back to cigarettes.

The tax: The Vaping Products Duty has already come in at £2.20 per 10ml of e-liquid from 1st October 2026, with a 6-month grace period until April 2027. This gives retailers until April 2027 to sell any liquid-containing products made before October 2026 at the previous cost. After the grace period ends, all stock will be subject to Vaping Products Duty. The tax applies to every vape liquid on the market, nicotine-free included (HMRC, 2026). UKVIA has calculated, using its own figures rather than an independent source, that this could push some product costs up by as much as 264%. Buy e-liquid regularly, and you’ll feel that on every bottle, and shortfills take the worst of it: a flat per-ml duty always hits the biggest bottles hardest.

The flavour risk: 14% of vapers, around 770,000 people, say they’d go back to smoking if flavours were restricted to tobacco, mint and menthol only (ASH, July 2025). Of everything in the Fair Deal, this is the one UKVIA is fighting hardest to prevent.

The government has also floated calling vape shops “anti-social” while it reviews business rate relief. Add that to the already-imposed tax, and the flavour numbers, and UKVIA’s case starts to look less like a grievance and more like a pattern.

The Fair Deal for Vaping: The 10 Commitments

The Fair Deal for Vaping sets out 10 commitments UKVIA wants government to make:

1. Tell the public the truth about vaping’s risk relative to smoking
2. Introduce a licensing scheme covering every vape retailer in the UK
3. Enforce existing law against illicit and underage sales properly
4. Protect adult flavour choice rather than restricting it to tobacco and menthol
5. Review the Vaping Products Duty before it pushes vapers back to smoking
6. Support the Swap to Stop scheme with consistent, long-term funding
7. Stop conflating regulated vape shops with the illicit market in public messaging
8. Apply proportionate advertising and display rules, not blanket bans
9. Involve the legitimate industry in policy design before rules are set
10. Commit to a regulatory approach that reduces smoking rates, not vaping rates

If you want the government to hear this argument, you can sign the Fair Deal for Vaping petition at enoughenough.co.uk. Sign up to our newsletter to stay ahead of the inevitable April price rise (due to the 6-month grace period from October-April 2027), or check our current multibuy e-liquid offers now.

Frequently Asked Questions