Law-flouting vape shops are being closed at a rate of four a week as the stores are being found guilty of selling to underage customers, new figures have revealed.
Freedom of Information requests submitted to Trading Standards departments across Britain found that 102 shops were subject to closure orders last year, with around half of all departments responding to the requests.
The national figure is closer to 200 closures a year or four a week if the original data is extrapolated. Once the departments who did not respond are taken into account, the Daily Mail reports.
Magistrates have the power to grant closure orders of up to three months against stores found guilty of selling vapes to underage customers or stocking products containing excessive or undeclared levels of nicotine.
The most active authority for closures was the Heart of South West Trading Standards area, covering Devon and Somerset, which obtained orders against 13 vape stores last year.
Newcastle was close behind with 12 closures, while 11 stores were shut in Swansea.
Among those closed was World Vape Shop in Swansea, which was shut down in September before officers returned following its reopening in January and discovered illegal vapes and tobacco worth more than £40,000 on the premises.
Earlier this month, shopworker Many Shahabi Kirimi, 23, pleaded guilty at Newport Crown Court to fraud, trademark and tobacco regulation offences in connection with the store.
It is likely almost 200 vape shops were closed in 2025, having illegally sold nicotine to underage children
|GETTY
The Iranian national, who entered the UK illegally in 2021 and had previous convictions for similar offences, was jailed for two years.
Sentencing him, Judge Geraint Walters said: "The sale of counterfeit cigarettes and illegal vapes is becoming a scourge within our communities."
A repeat offender also featured among the closures, with Yellow Express in Witham, Essex, ordered to close after Trading Standards officers carried out multiple seizures of illicit tobacco and non-compliant vapes in significant quantities from the premises.
Half of the local authorities who responded to the requests said they had collectively issued 1,180 warnings, cautions or fixed penalty notices to vape shops last year.
LATEST DEVELOPMENTS
Shopworker Many Shahabi Kirimi, 23, pleaded guilty to fraud, trademark and tabacco regulation offences
|SOUTH WALES POLICE
A total of 433 shops failed under-age vape test purchases during the same period, while 98 were prosecuted for illegal vape sales.
As with the closure orders, the true figures are likely to be approximately double those numbers once the authorities that did not respond to the FOIs are factored in.
The findings also highlighted significant inconsistencies in enforcement capacity across the country, with some areas carrying out rigorous test purchasing programmes while others struggled to act at all.
The Dorset Trading Standards watchdog had not carried out any underage vape test purchases whatsoever during 2025.
John Herriman, chief executive of the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, has called on the Home Office to urgently review the powers and resources available to Trading Standards officers, arguing the current situation is inadequate.
The enforcement figures come amid wider concern about the proliferation of vape shops on British high streets, with one Manchester location reported to have 54 e-cigarette stores lining just two streets.
In Basildon council, Reform UK councillors are bringing forward a first-of-its-kind motion aiming at preventing vape and barbershops from opening in local authority-owned commercial premises, where it is already oversaturated.
The proposal would pave the way for a policy preventing any new lease or letting of council-owned premises where the intended use is a vape shop or a barbershop where there are already many in the area.
Sam Journet, Leader of Reform UK in Basildon, said: “How many vape shops and barbers do our high streets REALLY need?
“Residents stop us every week and say exactly the same thing. People are fed up watching the same types of businesses popping up again and again while variety disappears and parts of our high streets lose their identity.
“Let me be clear. This is not a ban. This is not against any individual business owner, and it is certainly not against any community. These businesses have a place.
“But taxpayer-owned property should work for local people, not simply become a conveyor belt for more of the same in areas already saturated.”
Our Standards: The GB News Editorial Charter