A major crackdown on youngsters vaping across the country will be rolled out in Kent.

It is part of a public health education intervention to create a “smoke-free” generation.

A nationwide consultation had 25,000 responses from a range of people including healthcare professionals, academics, parents and young people.

Kent County Council (KCC) has set out its support for legislative changes to tackle the rise in vaping by youngsters.

KCC is backing the government’s proposal to ban tobacco sales to anyone born on or after January 1, 2009.

Plans for the government to introduce the Tobacco and Vapes Bill were announced in the King’s Speech in November.

Other proposals include restricting the flavours and descriptions of vapes so they are no longer attractive to children, and restricting the sale of disposable vapes.

It could mean that keeping vapes behind shop counters and making ‘proxy sales’, the purchasing of tobacco products on behalf of young people under the legal age, would be illegal.

There would be fixed penalty notices to help local councils to enforce ‘age of sale’ laws.

In July, KCC passed a motion urging government ministers to scrap all disposable devices, which are favoured by the young.

KCC is also supporting calls for a ban of the use of cartoons and child-friendly images on vape packaging, so they are less attractive to under 18s.

A KCC statement said: “To address the gaps in evidence about underage vaping, KCC’s submission also references KCC Public Health team’s plan to conduct a survey to explore the use of nicotine and non-nicotine vapes among Kent secondary school students.”

Kent County Council’s director of Public Health, Dr Anjan Ghosh, said: “The number of Kent smokers continue to fall but smoking is still the leading cause of preventable illness and death, locally and nationally.

“By making addictive tobacco products less accessible to young people, delaying the start of smoking and potentially reducing the risk of them starting smoking in the first place, this proposal, if passed, would be the single most important public health legislation in a decade.

“Younger people vaping is also a cause for concern because while vaping can help adult smokers quit, anyone who doesn’t smoke should not vape. It’s not risk-free and its effects on undeveloped lungs not fully understood.

“While national research indicates more than 3 million people now vape in the UK, and e-cigarette use among school-aged children is rising, no regional data is available.

"It means that as well as supporting Trading Standards’ work to stamp out illicit tobacco and vape products and sales, and ensuring our schools are aware of national guidance about youth vaping, we want to get a clearer picture of vaping among our young people in Kent so we are able to effectively tackle the issue.”

Head of Kent Trading Standards, Steve Rock, said: “The vaping market is very complex and prolific. Working as part of a multi-agency team that includes UK Border Force, officers have stopped and seized over 800,000 illegal vapes as they entered the UK at Dover in the past 12 months.

“We also believe disposable vapes contribute to the increase in underage sales, as well as having a significant impact on the environment.

“In the face of these challenges there’s a lot of good work happening in the county – as we showed the Prime Minister when he visited Kent Scientific Services earlier this year.

“We look forward to seeing what new regulation and enforcement powers come out of the Smoke Free consultation to help us tackle the illegal tobacco and vape trade in the future.”

A new study revealed today (Thursday) shows the decades-long decline in smoking in England has slowed significantly since the pandemic.

The annual decline in smoking slowed to 0.3 per cent between April 2020 and August 2022, down from 5.2 per cent between June 2017 and February 2020, according to the study funded by Cancer Research UK.