Council Tobacco and Vape Surveillance Powers Updated
Most statutory instruments look impenetrable at first glance, and this one is no exception. But the change itself is quite focused. According to legislation.gov.uk, the Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Directed Surveillance and Covert Human Intelligence Sources) (Amendment) Order 2026 updates the list of tobacco and vaping offences for which certain council officials in England and Wales may authorise directed surveillance. That matters because the law on tobacco and vapes has just changed. When Parliament creates new offences, older surveillance rules can end up pointing at the wrong sections or old wording. This Order, made on 1 September 2026 and laid before Parliament on 2 September 2026, is the government’s way of bringing those rules back into line.
The first set of changes starts on 29 October 2026. From that date, the old offence of selling nicotine products to under-18s is replaced in the surveillance rules with a new offence under section 10 of the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026: selling vaping or nicotine products to under-18s. The wording around buying products for children changes too. The old reference to purchasing nicotine products on behalf of under-18s is removed, and a new offence is added under section 11 of the 2026 Act: purchasing vaping or nicotine products on behalf of under-18s. **What this means:** if a council is investigating suspected proxy purchasing or under-age vape sales, the legal route for authorising covert monitoring will now match the new Act.
The second set of changes arrives later, on 1 January 2027, and it is the part many readers will want to watch closely. The Order replaces the old tobacco offence of selling tobacco and related products to a person under 18 with a new offence under section 1 of the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026: selling tobacco and related products to a person born on or after 1 January 2009. It does the same for adults who buy tobacco on someone else’s behalf. The old offence of purchasing tobacco and related products for a person under 18 is replaced with the new section 2 offence of purchasing tobacco and related products on behalf of a person born on or after 1 January 2009. **Why the date matters:** from New Year’s Day 2027, the surveillance rules no longer hinge on an under-18 test for these tobacco offences. They hinge on date of birth.
It is also worth slowing down over the phrase directed surveillance. This Order does not hand every council worker a free pass to spy. The explanatory note says the 2010 Order already sets out which offices, ranks and positions in a public authority can grant authorisations, and article 7A limits the offences for which certain council officials may do so. In practice, we are talking about tightly defined covert monitoring in specific investigations. There is another legal wrinkle here. The Order formally extends to England and Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. But the offences being updated in article 7A are the ones that apply to individuals holding positions in councils in England and Wales. **What this means:** the Order has UK-wide extent on paper, while the council authorisation rule it amends is specifically about England and Wales.
If you are reading this and wondering whether councils have been given a completely new surveillance power, the short answer is no. The big policy shift sits in the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026, which created new offences covering the sale of, and purchase on behalf of others of, tobacco products, herbal smoking products, cigarette papers, vaping products and nicotine products. This amendment Order mainly swaps out repealed offences and inserts the new ones so the older surveillance framework still works. That may sound technical, but technical wording matters in law. If the offence list is out of date, enforcement can become messy, delayed or open to challenge. Signed on 1 September 2026 by Diana Johnson at the Department of Health and Social Care, the Order is really about legal housekeeping with real consequences for how councils investigate.
For retailers, this is a reminder that tobacco and vape enforcement is not standing still. Shop owners in England and Wales need to pay attention not only to what can be sold, but also to who may be buying on behalf of younger people and how councils build cases. For schools, parents and youth workers, the update shows that the law is focusing on both direct sales to children and adults who act as middlemen. There is a civil liberties angle as well, and we should not skip past it. Covert monitoring by a public authority should always invite careful questions about necessity, proportionality and oversight. **What this means:** the Order updates a limited list of offences for which certain council officials may authorise directed surveillance; it does not create a blank cheque for routine snooping.
The explanatory note says no separate full impact assessment has been produced for this Order because the government does not expect any new or significant effect on the private or voluntary sectors beyond what was already assessed for the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026. Instead, readers are pointed to the Department of Health and Social Care’s impact assessment for the Act itself. For us, that is the best way to read this piece of law: not as a stand-alone drama, but as an update to the machinery behind a bigger change. If you are trying to make sense of it, keep the timeline in view. Most of the Order starts on 29 October 2026, while the tobacco date-of-birth offences move over on 1 January 2027. Once you see those two dates clearly, the rest of the document becomes much easier to follow.