Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps she is taking with Cabinet colleagues to help ensure that lobbying by the tobacco industry does not undermine future public health policies aimed at reducing smoking rates.

Smoking is responsible for approximately 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom, and causes around one in four cancer deaths in the UK. It also costs our country £17 billion a year, and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. Smoking is an addiction, and there is no liberty in addiction. It causes harm to not only the smoker, but to society as a whole. That is why we have introduced the Tobacco and Vapes Bill to create the first smokefree generation, and enable us to further crack down on youth vaping. The Tobacco and Vapes Bill is available at the following link:

https://bills.parliament.uk/bills/3703

The UK is a party to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, and under Article 5.3 has an obligation to protect the development of public health policy from the vested interests of the tobacco industry. As a world leader in tobacco control, the Government takes this commitment very seriously. In 2023, the Department published guidance for Government engagement with the tobacco industry, which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/protocol-for-engagement-with-stakeholders-with-links-to-the-tobacco-industry/guidance-for-government-engagement-with-the-tobacco-industry

The Department regularly publishes correspondence from, or to, those with links to the tobacco industry, and it is available at the following link:

https://khub.net/web/phe-national/public-library/-/document_library/v2WsRK3ZlEig/view/394794557