Councils confiscated around 1.26 million illegal vapes in the most recent year covered, close to 3,500 a day. Over three years, the total comes to just under 4.9 million, worth an estimated £39 million at roughly £8 a device. Central Bedfordshire Council reported the single largest haul, 345,718 devices, around three times its previous total, with Bolton and Kent close behind. The North West and East of England saw seizures rise sharply, while London fell, which the report's authors read as the trade shifting its routes rather than shrinking overall.

Councils also seized more than 7.2 million illegal cigarettes over the same period, and 255,648 banned disposable vapes since the single use vape ban took effect on 1 June 2025. A ban on selling a product does not stop every unit reaching shoppers, it just makes every unit that does illegal.

The same FOI data points to a widening gap between the scale of the problem and the resources catching it. Trading Standards carried out 8,881 inspections for illegal nicotine products in the latest year, a 5% fall on the year before, despite an extra £10 million in government funding announced in March 2025. Only around 1.5% of inspections led to a fine, a 34% drop on the previous rate. Vape Club's director, Dan Marchant, said inspections had fallen "despite" the added funding, and called for Trading Standards to get substantially more resources.

The report also flags a timing concern. The vaping products duty, which took effect on 1 October 2026 at £2.20 per 10ml, adds a fixed cost to every bottle of legal, duty paid stock. Unless enforcement capacity grows to match it, a wider price gap could make illegal product more attractive, just as inspection numbers are falling rather than rising.

Under the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016, still the core product standard alongside the newer Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026, a legally sold vaping product has to meet fixed requirements. Nicotine containing e-liquid cannot exceed 20mg per ml. Tanks are capped at 2ml, and a refill bottle cannot hold more than 10ml. Packaging and the device must be child resistant and tamper evident, with no added colourings, caffeine or taurine, and a warning that it contains a highly addictive substance.

Before any nicotine vaping product can be sold in Great Britain, its producer, meaning whoever manufactures, imports or rebrands it, has to submit a notification to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, published by the MHRA before the product reaches shelves. Northern Ireland uses a parallel EU route. A product that skips this step, exceeds the limits, or contains a banned ingredient is illegal, however confidently it is sold. See our UK laws and regulations guide and nic salt usage and safety page for more.

Skipping MHRA notification is not just a paperwork issue. Testing carried out by the Inter Scientific laboratory in Liverpool on a batch of seized, unnotified vapes, reported by the BBC in May 2023, found lead at around 2.4 times the safe exposure level, nickel at roughly 9.6 times and chromium at about 6.6 times, measured in the e-liquid itself rather than the heating coil. The same testing found carbonyl compounds such as formaldehyde and acetaldehyde, also found in tobacco smoke, at around 10 times the levels seen in legally notified vapes, with some samples exceeding cigarette smoke.

Not every illegal vape contains these contaminants, but MHRA notification is not a box ticking exercise. It is what keeps an e-liquid's contents, and a device's output, in line with the label, rather than assumed. For adults who have chosen to vape rather than smoke, buying only from properly notified retailers is the simplest way to make sure the switch delivers the lower toxicant exposure vaping is meant to offer. See our health and safety page for more.

A few checks take seconds and rule out almost every illegal product in circulation.

• Buy from a registered UK retailer that asks for age verification at checkout and on delivery, rather than a market stall, pop up kiosk or an unverified social media seller.
• Check the bottle or packaging for the nicotine warning statement and a strength clearly marked at 20mg per ml or below.
• Look for a tank or pod rated at 2ml, or a refill bottle at 10ml. Anything larger on a nicotine containing product is a legal red flag on its own.
• Be wary of prices that sit well below the cost of duty paid, MHRA notified stock, since the vaping products duty alone now adds £2.20 to every 10ml of legal e-liquid.
• If in doubt, a genuinely notified product should be searchable on the MHRA's own public notification database before you buy it.

If a vape fails any of these checks, do not use it. Report it to your local Trading Standards team or the Citizens Advice consumer helpline, and see our FAQ page or customer support page if you have questions about an order from us.