The consultation sits alongside the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 and would be implemented through secondary regulations made under that Act, rather than being settled by the Act itself. Health Secretary Wes Streeting framed the aim around protecting children from secondhand exposure, saying that no child in a playground or hospital patient should have to suffer because someone else chooses to smoke nearby, a line echoed by Chief Medical Officer Professor Chris Whitty, who has said that no smoker wants to cause harm but secondhand smoke does exactly that.

Crucially, the proposal does not treat vaping as identical to smoking throughout. For indoor spaces, where smoking is already banned, the government proposes that the same spaces should also become heated tobacco free and vape free. Outdoors is where it gets more specific, and more interesting for anyone who vapes: only two outdoor settings are proposed to become vape free, not the full list proposed for smoking and heated tobacco. The consultation itself is explicit that vaping is considered less harmful than smoking and can help adult smokers quit, while still noting that vapes are not entirely risk free, which is the balance the whole document tries to strike.

Two outdoor settings are proposed to become smoke free, heated tobacco free and vape free all at once: public children's playgrounds, where councils would be involved in how the rule is applied, and the outdoor areas of education settings, covering maintained and independent schools, academies, free schools, pupil referral units, sixth form colleges and early years childcare settings.

A third category, the outdoor areas of health and care settings, is proposed to become smoke free and heated tobacco free but not vape free. That list covers GP surgeries, community and acute hospitals, specialist and children's hospitals, mental health hospitals, minor injuries units, hospices, care homes and day centres. The government has deliberately left vaping out of this particular category outdoors, which is one of the clearest signals in the whole document that vaping and smoking are not being treated as the same thing by this policy.

For every proposed zone, the government is weighing up three different ways of drawing the boundary: the entire site plus a ten metre perimeter around it, the entire site plus a ten metre perimeter only around entrances and exits, or simply the site boundary itself with no extra buffer. Signage would be required at access points or, where a playground has no defined boundary, near the play equipment itself.

The proposal that will likely surprise most readers concerns private vehicles. Smoking in a car carrying a passenger aged 17 or under has been illegal in England since 2015. The consultation proposes extending that exact same protection to heated tobacco and to vaping, so that a private vehicle with a person aged 17 or under inside would also become heated tobacco free and vape free, in addition to smoke free.

The consultation document does not set out a penalty or enforcement mechanism specific to this proposal, and the government's own press material says only that enforcement of the wider package would mirror existing smoke free laws, where compliance has historically been high. In other words, this is a genuine proposal, backed by a formal government consultation and an Options Assessment reviewed by the Regulatory Policy Committee, but it is not yet a confirmed new offence with a confirmed fine attached.

The government has gone out of its way to rule certain places out. Its own press release states plainly that outdoor hospitality settings, including pub gardens, and open public spaces more generally, are not included, and that private homes and private outdoor spaces are also out of scope. A Business Minister, Kate Dearden, has specifically framed the package as designed to avoid placing extra pressure on pubs, restaurants and the wider hospitality sector.

There are also carve outs within the settings that are covered. Care homes with nursing, residential care homes, assisted living homes, hospice centres, mental health residential facilities and residential schools could still allow a designated outdoor smoking or vaping area for the people who live there, if a manager chooses to set one up. Interestingly, the consultation proposes a wider vaping exemption than a smoking one in two places: stop smoking services where a vape is used under the supervision of a healthcare professional, and mental health residential facilities.

One exemption that is explicitly ruled out is any special treatment for specialist vape shops. Some tobacco retailers already benefit from a narrow exemption, but the consultation states there is no clear or agreed definition of a specialist vape shop, and raises concern that some vape shops can appeal to children in the way they are presented. Retailers reading this consultation should not assume their own premises would be treated any differently from other indoor public spaces.

For EcoSmok customers, the honest, practical answer is that nothing about where you can legally vape has changed because of this consultation, because it is still only a consultation. You do not currently need to stop vaping in your car, in a park, outside a shop or anywhere else you are legally entitled to vape now, simply because this document exists. What has changed is the direction of travel: a formal government consultation, backed by an independently reviewed Options Assessment, is a meaningfully stronger signal of future regulation than a campaign call or a single MP's private member's bill.

The single most useful habit any vaper can build today, regardless of how this consultation ultimately lands, is simply being considerate around children and in spaces clearly intended for them, well before any law requires it. If and when a government response does appear, EcoSmok will cover exactly what it confirms, including any commencement date and any penalty structure that is finally attached to the private vehicle proposal.