AI bots made up 76% of responses to UK disposable vapes consultation
Research in Tobacco Control found the DHSC identified 90,835 of 118,756 responses to its 2023 vapes consultation as bot-generated and excluded them.
The story in focus
The Guardian reported that 90,835 of 118,756 responses to the UK's 2023 tobacco and vapes consultation were machine-generated, according to research in Tobacco Control. The Department of Health and Social Care excluded them, and the disposable vapes ban later passed into law.
- DHSC identified 90,835 of 118,756 responses, 76%, as bot submissions
- All but two of the automated responses opposed the disposable vapes ban
- The department excluded the automated responses from decision-making
- The bill was inherited by the Labour government in 2024 and passed into law
- Researchers called it the first documented large-scale automated interference in a public health consultation
What the research found
Research published in the journal Tobacco Control by health policy experts Dr Nason Maani of the University of Edinburgh and Prof Anna Gilmore of the University of Bath examined the 2023 consultation on what became the tobacco and vapes bill. The Guardian reported that bot-detection methods showed 90,835 of the 118,756 responses, 76%, were submitted by bots.
All but two of those automated responses answered the same question and opposed the plan to ban disposable vapes. The submissions were often duplicated and sent at high frequency from a small number of IP addresses, according to the DHSC. The researchers described it as apparently the first documented instance of large-scale automated interference in a formal public health policy consultation.
Government response and outcome
The DHSC excluded the 90,835 automated responses from its decision-making. It said its controls worked effectively and that the consultation helped inform the resulting action. The Labour government inherited the bill in 2024 and passed it into law, including the ban on businesses selling or supplying disposable vapes.
Maani said the risk is that future campaigns become harder to detect and that such efforts could make a handful of powerful interests appear like a mass movement. Caroline Cerny of Action on Smoking and Health said public health decisions must rest on evidence rather than manipulated response numbers, and Azzurra Moores of the thinktank Demos said the findings raise concerns about trust in consultations.
How many of the 2023 UK consultation responses were identified as machine-generated?
The DHSC identified 90,835 of 118,756 responses, or 76%, as bot submissions, and excluded them. All but two of the automated responses opposed the disposable vapes ban.
Sources & further reading
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