Government is aware of people using VPN's to circumvent any age verification. The UK isn't outright banning them but effectively banning them in the same way they have with the right to protest as of today (coincidental timing, I'm sure). Instead of outright banning which would cause outrage and be indefensible, they make the law so vague that everything is covered while leaving a defence to say they didn't ban that thing. One of the things being amended is the requirement for payment processors to stop processing payments to any "Internet service" including VPN's and satellite Internet providers who refuse to implement censorship. Will the likes of ExpressVPN, Nord VPN, Surfshark, Starlink et al provide service for free? Of course they won't, they'll just exit the UK market. The free VPN providers will be blocked if an ISP still wants to be paid for providing their service and they will all comply.

VPN's are on borrowed time. Pornography may end up going to the dark web as a consequence of these new laws.