As part of the College’s ongoing commitment to support the health and wellbeing of students, we have taken the decision to ban smoking and vaping across the College site from 2 June 2025.  This is not a decision that has been taken lightly, preferring to educate and support students to make their own choices; however, we feel it is time to make a more significant change. 

Additional to the published risks students faced from smoking and vaping, we are experiencing significant disruptions from the smoke alarms being triggered; this has resulted in disruptions to lessons and exams and has financial implications for the College.   

The reason for the lengthy lead-up to the ban is so that we can use this time to support students to quit.  We also need time to make adjustments to our site to ensure that we can provide adequate supervision, monitoring and intervention.   

June 2025 as currently 5 million disposable vapes are discarded each week in the UK. 

The points below are taken from the Office of National Statistics and highlight some of the reasons and challenges we face as a region and which have informed our decision: 

  • Hull has the second-highest smoking rate in the country, only behind Blackpool 
  • More than one in five people in Hull – 20.49% – smoked in the last three years on average compared with the national average of 12.9%. 
  • Both nationally and locally there has been a significant increase in the use of vapes 
  • Figures released from Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) have revealed smoking costs Hull £370m a year. This is made up of healthcare costs, as well as social care, the impact of poor health on ability to work, and calculations based on money spent on smoking, rather than within the local economy 
  • Males within the city have a healthy life expectancy of 7.8 years less and a life expectancy of 2.1 years less than the best comparator population 
  • Compared to national data, the average Hull male lives for more than twelve years in poor health before they reach the state pension age of 66, compared to the national average of three years 
  • Women in Hull experience around eight years ill health compared to the national average of two years  

The UK Government has announced a BAN on disposable vapes which will take place from 1st