~/blog/save-vaping-campaign-site-dhsc-consultation
A campaign site called Save Vaping is now pointing consumers at the DHSC consultation
savevaping.org carries a postcode MP lookup and a customisable letter to an MP, and trade press reported it on 21 August. What it is, who runs it, and how its framing lines up against what the consultation actually proposes.
The Department of Health and Social Care’s consultation on the packaging, appearance and retail display of tobacco, vaping and nicotine products opened on 10 July and closes at 11:59pm on 2 October 2026. Since the third week of August the trade press has reported a consumer campaign built to run that clock down. Save Vaping, at savevaping.org, was reported by Vape Business on 21 August.
What the site does
It describes itself as a campaign organised by the New Nicotine Alliance and asks visitors to do two things: file a consultation response, and write to their MP. For the MP letter it carries a postcode lookup that returns the constituency member and one example message to personalise around adult choice, harm reduction, retail impact and youth protection. It links out to the department’s own consultation rather than collecting responses itself, and it states the same 11:59pm deadline.
This is an advocacy site, not an official one. The NNA describes itself as a registered charitable organisation, charity number 1160481, and says it is unable to accept donations from manufacturers and distributors of nicotine products.
What is on the consultation’s face
Three limbs matter to this trade. Flavour descriptors would be cut to “a single, recognised flavour name, like apple or strawberry”. Vape devices would be restricted to white, black or grey, one colour per device, in a matt finish. Display would be restricted, with a requested temporary display allowed behind the sales counter. The consultation is run by DHSC with the devolved governments and covers the whole UK. None of it is law. The document proposes a minimum notice period of 12 months for packaging and device requirements and 6 months for display restrictions — notice periods, not commencement dates.
Where the framing runs ahead of the instrument
Vape Business quoted the NNA saying the proposals would hide products behind screens, ban advertising, impose plain packaging, restrict flavours, ban vending machines and control the shape, colour and size of devices — “just like cigarettes”. Not all of that is in this consultation: the advertising and sponsorship ban and the vending machine provisions come from the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 itself, on the timetable we set out in August; and the document would restrict flavour descriptors, not flavours, and device colour and finish, not shape or size. The consequences the campaign attaches to them — harder switching, damage to specialist retail — are the NNA’s position, not departmental findings.
Save Vaping is not the only portal in the window. Vape Business reported on 18 August that the e-liquid manufacturer Riot Labs had launched savevaping.co.uk, a separately run response tool with a near-identical address. Readers should check which of the two they are on.
Nicotine is addictive, and these products cross a UK counter that is over-18s only. We report the consultation because it decides what that counter looks like — for adults already vaping and for smokers weighing the switch, and for nobody else.