Asked by
To ask His Majesty’s Government when they intend to publish their
Tobacco Control Plan; and whether it is still their intention
that England shall be smoke-free by 2030.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health
and Social Care () (Con)
Following the publication of the Khan review into smoke-free
policies, we are taking stock of whether a fresh tobacco control
plan is the best way to respond to its independent
recommendations. The Government remain fully committed to the
ambition of a smoke-free England by 2030, and we will provide an
update on our plans to meet that target in due course.
(Lab)
My Lords, I think this is the first time the Minister has
answered a Question about tobacco control; I welcome him to this
debate. He will know that this House has led the way in putting
forward and implementing measures that have led to a significant
drop in smoking levels, certainly since 2002. There is
cross-party consensus that we should go on in this way.
The Minister’s predecessor, the noble Lord, —I am pleased to see him in
his place—is on the record in both March and April as saying not
only that the Government are committed to a smoke-free 2030, as
confirmed by the Minister this afternoon, but that the new
tobacco plan will be published this year. Does the Minister
accept that, to achieve the smoke-free target and reduce the
appalling inequalities in life expectancy caused by smoking, it
will be necessary to implement the recommendations in Javed
Khan’s independent review, particularly those based on the
“polluter pays” principle?
(Con)
First, I thank the noble Lord for all his work to reduce smoking;
I am grateful for it every time I walk into a smoke-free
environment in the evening. As he said, a cross-party approach
has achieved many great things. As the noble Lord knows, there
are some quite radical things in the Khan review, such as
increasing the smoking age every year, which would in effect ban
smoking altogether. There are many pros and cons to the
prohibition argument, but it is something we take very seriously
and we will publish our response. I assure noble Lords that we
are going to tackle this issue.
(Con)
My Lords, does my noble friend recall that in the former
coalition Government, we made considerable progress in reducing
smoking in this country, not least by focusing on the level of
initiation of smoking among young people? We banned vending
machines, for example. Will the Government consider raising from
18 the age at which young people can buy cigarettes?
(Con)
I agree with my noble friend. The key age group to attack, so to
speak, is 16 to 18-year-olds, which is often when the smoking
habit begins. We must look seriously at every step we can take to
reduce smoking in that age group. I am also aware that 18 is the
age of consent, of being able to do lots of things, and changing
that for smoking would obviously be quite a radical step, but
everything is on the table as we review the best way forward.
(LD)
My Lords, the Health Foundation recently published figures
showing that the budgets for tobacco control and smoking
cessation have been cut in real terms by 41%. Is not part of the
answer to funding treatment for addiction to tobacco, alcohol and
gambling the extension of the “polluter pays” principle? What is
the argument against a levy on the very large profits of the
tobacco companies, in order to pay towards helping their
customers who want to quit?
(Con)
There are a number of ways we can tackle this, price, obviously,
being one of the main ways, along with taxation. The noble Lord
will be aware that we increase the tax by 2% every year, and
cigarettes prices here are now the highest in Europe. We are
still providing funding of £73 million per year to help 100,000
people stop smoking. But it is not always money that counts.
Anti-smoking campaigns, branding restrictions and taxation are
all other elements which are proving successful.
(CB)
My Lords, have His Majesty’s Government estimated the loss to the
Treasury if England became smoke-free?
(Con)
I am not aware of those figures, but the general feeling is that
the savings to the health system would far outweigh them. I would
always err in favour of doing everything we can to reduce
smoking, whatever the impact on the tax we raise, because the
savings on the health side are far, far greater.
(Lab)
My Lords, despite the Government pledging to explore additional
measures to clamp down on the sale of e-cigarettes to under-18s,
no plan has yet materialised, while vaping among 11 to 18
year-olds has more than doubled. What assessment have the
Government made of this alarming trend, and what action is being
considered to keep children and young people away from this
gateway to a smoking habit?
(Con)
This is a difficult area. On the one hand, I think we all agree
that vaping is much better than smoking, so we are trying to get
the message out to people to stop smoking and use vaping if need
be. At the same time, we do not want vaping to be a gateway, as
she says. Giving those mixed messages is never an easy thing to
do, which is why we must consider as part of the Khan review the
best way to get that message out. The recent Cochrane review
shows that vaping is as safe as all other methods of stopping
smoking, such as patches, so it should be our key way of stopping
smoking.
(Con)
My Lords, as much as I enjoy my non-political friendship with the
noble Lord, , I totally
disagree with the premise behind his Question. Why should Big
Brother tell me what I can and cannot do in respect of something
I have been doing for 67 years?
(Con)
I am not sure whether that question is for me, but I will try my
best. As ever on these things, there is a carrot and a stick.
Cross-party, we have introduced carrot measures—the anti-smoking
campaigns—and stick measures such as pricing and restrictions.
That has worked very well to date. We have halved the smoking
rate over the last 15 years, and we must continue to work on
carrot-and-stick measures to reduce it further.
(Lab Co-op)
My Lords, the Minister will be aware that the tobacco industry is
very adept at getting round regulations. In 1986, John Home
Robertson’s Bill made illegal the use of tobacco pouches that
people put in their mouths as substitutes. I understand that
synthetic nicotine pouches are now being used to get round that
law, so what are the Government doing to stop this?
(Con)
I will need to write to the noble Lord on that. I am aware that
different methods exist, but I think we are all united on the
need to do everything we can to prevent any circumvention.
(Con)
Is not any plan meaningless when at least a third of the market
is supplied by illegal imports? His Majesty’s Government appear
not to have done anything to stop this, and it is the young
people in our country who are smoking the cheap, illegally
imported cigarettes.
(Con)
We are working very hard with HMRC on this. I think we can all
agree that one thing that Brexit was good on was restricting the
number of cigarettes that people can bring in legally from other
parts of Europe.
Noble Lords
Oh!
(Con)
I will take everything I can. Clearly, we need to stop cigarettes
coming in by all illegal means.
(Lab)
The Government also lose a lot of income through illegal
importation. If the Government are working very hard indeed to
prevent it, can the noble Lord please spell out what they are
doing? As I understand it, the number of staff involved at the
ports is being cut.
(Con)
I do not have the figures on that, so I will need to give the
noble Lord a detailed reply.
