Southend-on-Sea Launches Anonymous Reporting Tool Against Illegal Vape Sellers

Southend-on-Sea City Council has opened an anonymous online reporting tool for residents to flag retailers it believes are selling tobacco and vaping products to under-18s, or supplying illicit and counterfeit products, and the service is being run into the council's wider effort to support legitimate retailers against the illegal trade.

The tool sits on the council's website, and residents can submit information about a retailer without identifying themselves. The council has framed the service as a way to make it simpler to get a concern to Trading Standards, which carries out the follow-up, including test purchasing and inspections, once a report lands.

The launch is timed to sit alongside a set of new national measures on tobacco and vaping that took effect on 1 October, aimed at reducing youth access to the products and cracking down on the illicit channel. The council said the reporting tool is one of the local levers it is using to back those national changes on the ground.

The council has been explicit about why it is pressing the counterfeit angle. It said counterfeit tobacco and vaping products carry real health and safety risks, with the illegal vapes potentially containing unsafe components and batteries, and it noted that the sale of counterfeit goods is often tied to wider criminal activity, which is the reason the reporting push is part of a broader program rather than a standalone one.

A council cabinet member with regulatory services in her portfolio said protecting the public from harmful products is a priority and that the new form is meant to lower the cost of reporting a concern. Alongside the tool, the council's cabinet is set to look at the powers it has to address what it describes as an excessive concentration of vape shops, mobile phone repair businesses and barbers in parts of the High Street, a move it framed as keeping the retail mix in balance while supporting the legitimate shops.