Debate contribution: Tobacco Retailer (Fixed Penalty) (Amount) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026
Debate contribution by Mr Robbie Butler on .
- MLA
- Mr Robbie Butler
- Party at the time
- Ulster Unionist Party
- Date
- 5 October 2026
- Type
- Debate contribution
- Business
- Executive Committee Business
- Heading
- Tobacco Retailer (Fixed Penalty) (Amount) (Amendment) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 2026
- Assembly identifier
- Official Report component 5773980
Read the official Assembly record
Text
Thank you, Madam Principal Deputy Speaker. Before I address Members' comments, I will say that such regulations are an example of legislation that I like to see come forward for the Assembly to debate. In the many debates on health that we have had over the years, we have talked about how early identification and early intervention can lead to better outcomes, but there is nothing better than prevention. We have known for decades about the damage that smoking tobacco does. It causes respiratory diseases. Whether it is a young person, a pregnant woman, a man or an older person smoking, we know of the dangers and the outcomes, from lung cancer to COPD. I see a crowd of young people in the Gallery. It takes me back to when I started secondary school in 1982 and how things have changed since then. Back then, I got a bus to school. When I got on the bus, the layer of smoke was down to my knees, because everybody on that blinking bus smoked. Danny Donnelly mentioned second-hand smoking. The regulations will therefore save not just smokers' lives but the lives of people who inhale second-hand smoke. I thank the Members who spoke, in particular the Chair and Deputy Chair of the Health Committee. I will refer to a few of the points made. As I said in my opening remarks, smoking continues to have a profound impact on public health in Northern Ireland. Youth vaping, which just about every Member who spoke mentioned, is an increasing concern. I thank the Chair of the Health Committee for recollecting the input of the Youth Assembly, because it has an important role to play. It is important that young people speak to such matters, because some of the laws under which we are now making regulations will affect what they do and the choices that they have. It is important that I respond on the record to a point that the Chair raised. When we make such regulations, it is always right for the Department to do checks and balances. The Chair made a good point about communicating with retailers to ensure that their voice is captured. The regulations are further to the public consultation that happened many years ago on the then Bill. The regulations have teeth and are how enforcement will happen, about which I will inform the Assembly. Supporting retailers to help them understand and comply with the new requirements has been a key priority for my Department. I wanted to see where we were at with that. Departmental officials have met a number of retail organisations to brief them on the Tobacco and Vapes Act and its potential implications for retailers. In recent months, draft guidance for retailers has been shared with a range of key stakeholders, including representatives from the community and voluntary sector; retail organisations, including the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium, Retail NI and the Federation of Small Businesses; and councils. It is really important that we are not in an ivory tower up here but instead talk to councils' enforcement officers and to the retailers that will have to change their practices. A recent review that the Institute of Public Health undertook of the health effects of vaping among children and adolescents found strong, high-quality evidence of an association between vaping and subsequent cigarette use, which supports the view that vaping acts as a gateway to tobacco use. The Tobacco and Vapes Act creates an important framework for addressing those challenges. Effective enforcement, however, is essential if the safeguards in the Act are to deliver their intended outcomes. I thank Alan Robinson for saying that there was no argument to be made against the regulations. He said that the Department had said that implementing them will have no cost implications, and he is absolutely right, but, in the long run, if we become a smoke-free society, we will see quantifiable savings in lives saved and in money that can be reused in the health service to treat other ailments. I thank the Member for bringing that up. By updating the existing fixed penalty framework, the regulations will support councils to carry out their enforcement responsibilities and help ensure that the legislation can be applied consistently across Northern Ireland. Danny, I give you credit for using the "smoke-free generation" phrase. I wanted to get it into my speech, but you beat me to it. Hopefully, as we develop further legislation, by taking an evidence-based approach to what vaping does — I suspect that it is not good — we can encourage young people to ditch vapes as well.
These regulations represent a practical but necessary step in the successful implementation of the Tobacco and Vapes Act. Therefore, I commend the motion to the Assembly and ask Members to support the approval of the regulations.
807 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.
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