"The same registration requirements" is the key phrase in a new Scottish statutory instrument that will widen the retailer register from 29 October 2026. According to the regulations published on legislation.gov.uk, businesses selling herbal smoking products and nicotine products will be brought into the same system already used for tobacco and vaping retailers. It is dry legislative wording, but the effect is fairly plain. More products will sit inside the register, councils will have a broader enforcement tool, and independent retailers will need to make sure the paperwork matches what is being sold from their premises.

The regulations were made on 24 June 2026, laid before the Scottish Parliament on 26 June 2026, and come into force on 29 October 2026. From that date, section 69 and schedule 9 of the Tobacco and Vapes Act 2026 begin in Scotland, immediately after another part of the Act aligns the legal definition of a "vaping product". That change extends the 2010 Scottish register so that tobacco businesses, herbal smoking product businesses, vaping product businesses and nicotine product businesses all count as "registrable businesses". For shop owners, that is the real shift: categories that were treated differently are being pulled into one local enforcement system.

There is, however, a grace period built into the law. The amendments to the offence provisions in section 20 of the 2010 Act do not start on 29 October 2026. They start six months later, on 29 April 2027. In practical terms, that gives businesses selling herbal smoking products and nicotine products a six-month window after the wider register goes live to get themselves registered before the updated offence rules take effect. For smaller retailers, that breathing space could matter, especially where product ranges have grown quicker than compliance checks behind the counter.

For Scottish councils, the other big change is enforcement. Once the new rules start, councils will be able to apply to the sheriff for a "banning order" against someone carrying on a registrable business from premises in their area, rather than relying on the narrower "tobacco and vaping product banning order" now used in the legislation. That may read like a technical rename, but it broadens the reach of the system. A retailer dealing in products newly covered by the register will now sit inside the same framework as established tobacco and vaping sellers, and councils will have a clearer route when they believe a ban should be sought.

The instrument also makes sure live cases do not fall into a legal gap during the switch. Any application for a tobacco and vaping product banning order that has been made but not decided before 29 October 2026 will automatically be treated as an application for the new-style banning order. Existing orders made before that date are kept alive for related parts of the 2010 Act as well, including registration decisions, ancillary orders, appeals and certain offences linked to the register. The old wording continues where it needs to, so the system changes over without wiping out decisions already made or actions already under way.

There is another saving provision with a practical point behind it. The old definition of a "tobacco or vaping product business" stays in force where needed for the transition, and also for the section 20(1) offence of trading as an unregistered person, until 29 April 2027. The explanatory note says the aim is to ensure retailers selling herbal smoking products and nicotine products face "the same registration requirements" as those already selling tobacco and vaping goods. Signed by Alison Thewliss on behalf of Scottish Ministers, this is one of those quiet public health changes made in Edinburgh that will be felt most sharply by council enforcement teams and small high street retailers, rather than by ministers at a lectern.