Bots flooded the UK government’s 2023 consultation on creating a smoke-free generation and restricting vape sales, according to research published October 27, 2026 in the journal Tobacco Control. The study was carried out by Nason Maani of the University of Edinburgh and Anna Gilmore of the University of Bath, based on published consultation reports and Freedom of Information requests to the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC).
The consultation ran in October 2023, and it drew 118,756 responses in total. DHSC identified 90,835 of them, or 76 percent, as fraudulent using bot-detection methods. Once those responses were removed, 27,921 genuine responses remained, including 896 from organisations.
How the bots were spotted
The bot responses overwhelmingly targeted a single multiple-choice question opposing proposed restrictions on disposable vape sales. They were often duplicated many times, sent at high frequency from a small number of IP addresses, and gave the same answer about learning of the consultation via social media.
The researchers call it what appears to be the first documented instance of large-scale automated interference in a formal public health policy consultation. That finding raises a serious question about how much trust can be placed in open online consultations when automated campaigns can flood them at scale.
What genuine respondents actually said
Once the fake responses were excluded, the picture changed sharply. Real respondents were clearly in favour of action on disposable vapes, not against it.
| Response group | Share |
|---|---|
| Responses flagged as fraudulent | 76 percent |
| Genuine responses remaining | 27,921 |
| Genuine respondents wanting restrictions on disposable vapes | 79.6 percent |
| Genuine respondents agreeing disposable vapes should be banned outright | 69 percent |
The contrast matters. The bot campaign pushed against restrictions, while the genuine public response leaned strongly the other way.
Why it matters now
The disposable vape sales ban took effect June 1, 2025, and the Tobacco and Vapes Act gained Royal Assent in April 2026. A DHSC spokesperson said its controls worked effectively and the fake responses were removed.
Maani warned that future campaigns could be harder to catch: “what we can’t catch, we don’t know about.”
For readers following UK vape rules, our guide to the best disposable vapes covers the devices affected by the changing market. More UK vape coverage is available on the VapeFeat homepage.
Source: Press Association, October 27, 2026
