Chamber and committees

I will hand over to Professor Bauld to answer that.

That is a good question. We were talking about that earlier. The LCM will allow us to include digital ways of getting identification, but it will not stop the use of paper identification. We will not be repealing provisions on the use of paper forms of identification from the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010 until we have new regulations in place.

We will do some consultation on the regulations to ensure that we get them right, but it is through the important conversations that we have with trading standards and the regulatory review group representing businesses that we will understand the best way of implementing them if the decision is made to do so.

As I highlighted earlier, we also have the updated register, which will allow us to push out information to retailers, so that they are kept informed of any changes.

I often speak to officials about that. We currently have ASH Scotland doing a review of how smoke-free spaces around hospitals are being enforced. We will use that to look at the possibility of having other spaces, perhaps. Consultation is important, so we will have that work as part of an evidence base, but we will then go out and consult more widely, as I have highlighted before, with RRG and other organisations.

We have had a number of conversations about that issue in looking at the bill. We have raised challenges on that, because we recognise that some products might be described as rechargeable simply because they have a USB point in them. The bill has been drafted as broadly as possible. There is a requirement that, if something has a removable coil, it would be defined under the bill as not being rechargeable. That is the work that we have been doing on that.

I absolutely recognise that we need to make sure that we capture all the new products that are coming in; the bill has been drafted as broadly as possible.

Since I provided evidence on 7 December, the Tobacco and Vapes Bill has continued its progress through the UK Parliament, with its second reading in the House of Lords on 23 April. I am delighted to say that there continues to be cross-party support for the bill and for creating a tobacco-free country for future generations.

We are here to discuss the supplementary legislative consent memorandum to the bill that was lodged in our Parliament on 28 March, which specifically relates to an amendment on age verification. The amendment, which relates to clause 60 of the bill, ensures that we have the ability to prescribe more age verification options in an ever more digital world. Currently, someone who is accused of selling products contrary to the age of sale restrictions in Scotland might have a defence if they check certain prescribed identity documents, and the clause seeks to amend the Tobacco and Primary Medical Services (Scotland) Act 2010 to ensure that Scottish ministers will have a power to prescribe a wider range of methods of age verification in regulations.

Once commenced, the current prescribed list of documents on the face of the 2010 act will be removed but can effectively be replaced by regulations. Ministers will have the flexibility to authorise digital forms of age verification in the future, should they be satisfied that it is appropriate to do so at the time. Scottish ministers will have the power to commence those changes through regulations, which will provide flexibility with regard to when any new regulations need to be brought forward. Consideration will be given to whether consultation is needed and, if so, to the nature of such consultation, depending on the content of future regulations.

In so far as new powers are being granted to Scottish ministers to make regulations, any such regulations will be subject to the negative procedure. The Scottish Parliament will, therefore, have the opportunity to closely scrutinise the content of those regulations to ensure that they meet the needs of Scottish policy. The amendment will ensure that Scottish ministers have the ability in future to accommodate developments in age verification, and it will enable the Scottish Parliament to appropriately scrutinise any such proposals and associated regulations in more detail at the relevant stage of the process.

I therefore recommend that the Scottish Parliament consent to the supplementary legislative consent memorandum.

If I remember correctly, you asked a similar question when I was before the committee in December. If I have understood you, the issue is whether people who are under age who buy tobacco products will then be charged.

We have extensive conversations with trading standards officers. We have been speaking to them throughout the drafting of the bill and its passage through the UK Parliament, in line with the work that we need to do on the LCMs.

In Scotland, we have a register for anyone who sells tobacco products, which will be expanded to include the new products as part of the bill. We have just invested in that, and it has far better outreach, which means that we can have direct conversations with retailers who are selling the products. It is important to underline that there is legislation to ensure that retailers do not sell to underage people. The purchaser needs to provide evidence of their age and the supplementary LCM will allow us to shift that from being simply paper documents to digitally accessible documents.

Yes, absolutely. Fiona Dill and I had a helpful visit to one of the secondary schools in Edinburgh to talk to parents—actually, fathers—who are concerned about their children accessing vapes. We have also had a campaign—I cannot remember the name of it off the top of my head.

Yes.

That shows the importance of working with Public Health Scotland so that we get the information through health surveys.