Smokefree Future

Bob Blackman Excerpts

Thursday 11th January 2024 Westminster Hall

[Bob Blackman (Harrow East) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the matter of a smokefree future.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Sharma, for at least the second time. No doubt you would prefer to be participating in rather than chairing this debate on the evidence and recommendations submitted to the all-party parliamentary group on smoking and health’s manifesto for a smoke-free future.

It is a pleasure to see the new Minister in her place; I thank her for attending a function that we held soon after she was appointed. I welcome the new shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Preet Kaur Gill), and look forward to what she has to say. I declare an interest as chair of the APPG, which wants to ensure that Parliament has the chance to debate our recommendations, along with the smoke-free generation proposals set out in the King’s Speech, and consider what more needs to be done to achieve the Government’s Smokefree 2030 target.

I welcome the Government’s historic commitment to create a smoke-free generation by raising the age of sale for tobacco by one year every year from 2027. This measure, along with other commitments set out by the Government, will help to close the door on the tobacco epidemic once and for all. With their Command Paper, the Government have demonstrated their commitment to achieving the smoke-free ambition and to ending the harms caused by tobacco. It was a great pleasure to hear my words in this place echoed almost word for word by the Prime Minister at the Conservative party conference. I congratulate his speechwriter on having observed what we had to say in last year’s debate.

The smoke-free generation policy was due to be implemented first by New Zealand, but it was abandoned by the incoming Government in November under pressure from their coalition partners. That presents us with the opportunity to be the first to implement the policy, thereby cementing the UK’s position as a global leader in tobacco control. In response to New Zealand’s decision, we have seen the tobacco industry going into overdrive on its lobbying machine, arguing that the UK should follow New Zealand in rowing back on our commitments and even promising that it would not vociferously oppose the smoking age rising from 18 to 21. That demonstrates how big a threat it is to have the smoke-free generation policy.

Quite rightly, the Prime Minister has rejected the industry’s arguments and reiterated the importance of creating a smoke-free generation. I commend the Minister for her robust response to the industry when she called out its attempts to undermine and block this measure. As she wrote in the i newspaper:

“The tobacco industry will talk about free adult choice, but we all know there is no freedom of choice once deadly addiction sets in. The industry has a long history of trying to obstruct and delay tobacco reforms. But we have absolutely no intention of going back on our word.”

I welcome those words, and I trust that the Minister will echo them when she responds to the debate.

Government action to end smoking is what the public want. Polling carried out by YouGov for Action on Smoking and Health shows that three quarters of the public, including the majority of smokers, support the Government’s Smokefree 2030 ambition and that two thirds of people in England back the Prime Minister’s age-of-sale proposal, with equivalent levels of political support among voters for all the main political parties at the last general election. This should not be a surprise, because no one wants to see their children smoking.

Just like the public, the majority of independent retailers selling tobacco support the key measures needed to tackle smoking, including raising the age of sale for tobacco to 21, with just over half of retailers in favour and a quarter opposed. Although that happened before the Government announced the smoke-free generation policy, it shows that retailers support the principle of raising the age of sale. That should not be a surprise, either. Tobacco sales now account for a very small fraction of the profits from those shops—less than 10% in 2016—and are dwindling year on year. Most small retailer transactions do not involve the purchase of tobacco at all.

From the 2007 ban on smoking in public places to standardised packaging in 2015, progress on tobacco control has consistently been driven from the Back Benches. Indeed, I am delighted that most of the 2021 recommendations from by the APPG on smoking and health were included in the recent Khan review and are now in the process of being implemented by the Government and the Department of Health and Social Care. They include progress towards much tougher regulation of vaping to protect children, additional funding for stop smoking services and anti-smoking campaigns, the swap to stop campaign, and financial incentives for pregnant women to stop smoking. In particular, I welcome the Minister’s decision to expand the offer of financial incentives so that it includes not only pregnant women but, critically, their partners. Dads and partners have a key role to play in determining whether women smoke or are exposed to second-hand smoke during pregnancy. That announcement is to be commended.

However, the Government need to go further. The Government’s proposals to create a smoke-free generation and curb youth vaping are welcome, but they will not be enough to achieve the Smokefree 2030 ambition. It is imperative that that ambition is realised for everyone, not just for the next generation. According to Cancer Research UK, the Government are nearly a decade behind achieving their target for England to be smoke free by 2030. The most deprived areas are not on track to hit the smoke-free target of 5% smoking prevalence until after 2050. That would leave the most vulnerable people in our society bearing the brunt of the harms from smoking for decades to come.

In our recently published tobacco manifesto, the APPG set out the action needed to accelerate the decline in smoking rates, in order to get us within spitting distance of a smoke-free 2030. The long wait for Government action on smoking means that achieving 5% smoking prevalence by 2030 will be even more challenging than when the ambition was first announced in 2019. However, that target is still within reach. The closer we get, the more lives we can save.

Modelling carried out for the APPG by academics at University College London shows that if our recommendations are implemented in full throughout the next Parliament, smoking prevalence in England, which is currently at 12.7%, will be reduced to 7.3% by 2029. That would deliver immediate benefits to health and wellbeing, as well as saving countless lives in the longer term, and would lead to a 5% rate by 2030.

Smoking remains the largest cause of preventable death, ill health and inequalities in the UK. Some 6.4 million adults in the UK currently smoke, approximately an eighth of the population. Most adult smokers want to stop smoking, but on average it takes 30 attempts to succeed; many never do so. It is one of the resolutions that smokers make, and it is sad when they break them very quickly in the new year.

Two out of three long-term smokers die prematurely, often after years of disability from the cancers and the respiratory and cardiovascular diseases caused directly by smoking. NHS data shows that in 2022-23 there were more than 400,000 smoking-related hospital admissions in England alone, an increase of 5% on the previous year.

Despite Harrow having a below-average smoking rate, tobacco still takes a heavy toll, causing over 1,300 hospital admissions in 2019-20 alone. People in Harrow suffer many of the same health inequalities as the rest of the country, with those from the poorest backgrounds and those with mental health conditions much more likely to smoke than the general population.

Smoking places a major financial burden on individuals, families and the taxpayer. The average smoker spends just over £3,000 a year on cigarettes, which is significantly more than the annual energy cost for a typical household. That is money that could be better spent on products and services to improve people’s quality of life, but instead it literally goes up in smoke to maintain their deadly addiction. In the APPG’s latest report we estimate that the cost of smoking to public services and the wider UK economy is £89.3 billion a year, the equivalent of 3.9% of GDP.

What about the direct costs of smoking to the public finances? One of the arguments made by the tobacco industry and its allies is that higher smoking rates benefit public finances because smokers pay extra tax in the form of tobacco duties and then die younger, meaning they use less of their pensions. Those arguments are callous, cold-blooded and not even true. Detailed analysis of the evidence carried out for the APPG shows that, rather than saving the Government money, smoking had a direct cost to the public finances of £21 billion last year: more than double the excise tax revenues. That cost is made up of extra social security payments, lost taxation from smokers who are too sick to work and, of course, significant costs to the NHS and social care services. Implementing the recommendations in our manifesto would reduce the public finance costs of smoking by an average of £628 million a year, which would total £3.1 billion by 2029. The case is clear: ending smoking once and for all will transform the nation’s health and wealth. The only losers would be the tobacco industry.

Local stop smoking services have a key role to play in delivering a smoke-free future, so I am pleased that the Government have committed to a five-year funding plan for smoking cessation services. That new funding will definitely help to drive down smoking rates, generating a return on investment literally from year one. However, we are significantly behind where we hoped to be when the smoke-free ambition was announced in 2019.

As we all know, the public finances are under significant strain, so why should taxpayers foot the bill for measures to end smoking when the tobacco industry could be made to do so? Tobacco manufacturers make an estimated £900 million profit a year in the UK alone, with an average net operating profit margin of about 50%. That far exceeds the average for UK manufacturing, which stands at less than 10%. In the UK, four companies are responsible for 95% of tobacco sales and are therefore responsible for an overwhelming majority of the tens of thousands of deaths a year caused by smoking. Despite their staggering profitability, the companies pay very little corporation tax in the UK. Through the exploitation of their global footprints and tax loopholes, they have been able to successfully avoid a fair tax bill overall. Imperial Brands, the largest tobacco manufacturer by market share in the UK, lowered its tax bill by an estimated £1.8 billion over the last 10 years.

The “polluter pays” principle has been accepted and successfully implemented in other industries, such as environmental health, the soft drinks industry and, most recently, the gambling industry. It could easily be extended to the tobacco industry. It could be implemented by capping tobacco wholesale prices, and hence profits, to bring the profit margins in line with the 10% average for other manufacturers. A “polluter pays” health promotion levy could ensure that the excess profits were turned into Government revenues, raising an estimated £700 million a year. That could fund the Government’s smoke-free generation commitments several times over, with money left over for other public health measures.

It is hard to think of a policy that has broader public support. The 2023 smoke-free Great Britain survey conducted by YouGov for Action on Smoking and Health revealed that 76% of adults in Great Britain would support a levy on the tobacco industry, while only 6% were opposed. That includes majority support from voters for all the main political parties. I stress that a levy would not mean an increase in the cost price of tobacco bought over the counter. The Department of Health and Social Care already has the expertise and resource needed to administer a levy in the team that oversees the pharmaceutical pricing scheme.

The primary legislation needed for a consultation on our proposals was part of the Health and Care Bill and was passed by the House of Lords. Unfortunately, due to Treasury opposition, it was voted down by the Government in the Commons. Will the Minister commit to discussing the APPG’s proposal of a “polluter pays” levy on tobacco manufacturers with Ministers in the Treasury and with us?

In the short time that I have left, I want to discuss how we can combat youth vaping. For years, we in the APPG have been calling for the Government to toughen legislation on vaping, so I am delighted that the Government have finally committed to taking action. My views on youth vaping are summed up by the chief medical officer:

“If you smoke, vaping is much safer; if you don’t smoke, don’t vape; marketing vapes to children is utterly unacceptable.”

In our manifesto, the APPG urges the Government to prevent e-cigarettes from being sold at pocket-money prices and to curtail advertising and promotion of vaping, particularly in shops, where most under-age vapers access e-cigarettes. We know that the rise in youth vaping since 2021 has been driven largely by the availability and marketing of cheap single-use vapes, and anecdotal evidence points to the fact that many young people believe that vaping is perfectly safe because the Government are encouraging people to give up smoking and take up vaping. Of course, that is a false conclusion, because it gets people addicted to nicotine and possibly leads on to cigarette use later in life.

There is clearly a need to address the affordability of vapes for young people while ensuring that they continue to be a cheaper option than smoking for adults who want to quit. Given the effectiveness of vapes as a smoking cessation aid, it is essential that any regulation takes a measured approach and ensures that vapes are still accessible to adult smokers. Can the Minister confirm when the consultation response will be published and when we will see the legislation laid before Parliament?

The case is very strong for a “polluter pays” levy and for all the recommendations that the APPG has put forward. I look forward to the contributions from colleagues around the Chamber, to the response from the Opposition and from our excellent Minister, and to achieving what we all want: a smoke-free England by 2030.

--- Later in debate ---

[Bob Blackman]

The hon. Member is giving a very thoughtful speech about some of the consequences. Does he accept the fact that, when individuals go into a public house, they will now routinely be challenged and asked for proof of identity if they look young? The challenge is often whether they are over 21, although they could, of course, legally buy alcohol at the age of 18. Many public houses will not serve anyone under the age of 21. Does the hon. Member accept the fact that, because this is already in operation, the retailer should have the right to challenge people who look young so that they can make sure that they are only selling to people who are over the legal age to buy?

[Ian Paisley]

That is a very good point when it comes to that threshold between 17 and 21 or 22. The problem is that this generational legislation creates a conveyor belt—from 18 to 19 to 20. Eventually you will be 37 and not be allowed to buy a cigarette under the law. But, if the retailer sells it to you, whether you are a young-looking, handsome 37-year-old or an old-looking boy, you will still end up not having committed a criminal offence, even though you have, but the retailer has committed an offence for selling it to you. At that point, where do the ID checks come in?

Perhaps the intention is that there will be a time in the next five, six, seven or eight years when no one will smoke. I want to turn to that. The one issue that I have pushed hard and heavy on since becoming a Member of Parliament is the criminalisation of illicit sales of tobacco that furnish criminals’ pockets. It is that illegal crime that really worries me.

The hon. Member for Harrow East, who moved the motion today, quite rightly commented on where he thinks the level of public consumption of cigarettes is. I think that the real figure is startlingly higher, because His Majesty’s Revenue and Customs estimates that 11% of cigarette consumption and 35% of hand-rolling tobacco consumption in the UK comes from the illegal trade. People are buying it illicitly, either as stolen products or black market products that have been brought into the United Kingdom. This is happening in a huge number of areas, and it is fuelling criminal gangs.

That is the higher level. There are more people consuming tobacco than some people want to admit but, unfortunately, they are buying it illegally. The Government are not benefiting in terms of tax and legitimate manufacturers are not benefiting. In fact, the companies are disadvantaged because the product is sometimes stolen from their companies, or is a copy—a counterfeit—of their products.

The Government must decide whether they want tobacco to be supplied to UK consumers by a taxed and regulated private sector, as it currently is, or by the public sector as a medicine, which may be one way of doing it, or by the criminal sector, in the same way that cannabis is sold. Those are the choices that the Government ultimately face.

In my view, a generational prohibition will gradually hand even more of the UK tobacco market to organised criminal gangs, who use the money from tobacco smuggling to fund activities including terrorism, people smuggling, prostitution and all sorts of other things. That view is lifted from the US State Department’s 2015 report, “The Global Illicit Trade in Tobacco: A Threat to National Security”. That is why the gangs deploy such resources. When the South African Government banned the sale of tobacco during covid, illegal traders quickly stepped in. Today, 93% of tobacco sold in South Africa is illicit trade and counterfeit trade. We need to get this absolutely right or else we create a bonanza for the criminal. The sooner we do that, the better, and I am sure the Minister will consider those issues.

I do not want to criminalise shopkeepers, and I know the hon. Member for Harrow East does not want that, but that will be an unintended consequence. As people get older, it will be very difficult to judge whether they can be sold a cigarette. Shopkeepers will have to ask for ID, and we do not have ID in Great Britain. In Northern Ireland, we have a form of ID in our electoral cards, but they do not carry a date of birth, although they do show that a person is over the age of 18. That would have to be changed if they were to be used in Northern Ireland.

What are the alternatives? Many retailers and others have suggested that raising the age of sale for tobacco products to 21 would be much simpler to implement and would avoid this potential negative consequence, and the nightmare of regulation. It would be far easier to implement and enforce, and would avoid the complete takeover of the UK tobacco market by criminals. I urge the Government to consider those alternatives in pursuing this incredibly important flagship policy. For the record, I do not promote smoking, but I believe in adults making choices. We have to try to solve the real problem, not create another one.

--- Later in debate ---

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Dame Andrea Leadsom)]

It is a pleasure to speak under your chairmanship today, Mr Sharma. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) on securing a debate on such an important issue, and pay tribute to his work as chair of the all-party parliamentary group on smoking and health. He really has been tireless in holding not only Health Ministers’ feet, but the Prime Minister’s feet, to the fire and making sure that we keep tobacco control a top priority. I am also grateful to the hon. Members for City of Durham (Mary Kelly Foy), for North Antrim (Ian Paisley), for Strangford (Jim Shannon) and for Blaydon (Liz Twist) for their participation today. I welcome the chance to update the House on our progress towards a smoke-free future. I welcome the hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Preet Kaur Gill) to her place, and look forward to working constructively with her on the tobacco and vapes Bill and other things. I hope there will be much that we can agree and collaborate on.

I want my legacy as Public Health Minister to be weighed and measured by everything we have done to protect the vulnerable in society. Critical to that, of course, is keeping our children safe. We already know that in the United Kingdom, smoking kills around 80,000 people every year, causing one in four cancer deaths; costing £17 billion a year in ill health, lost productivity and demands on the NHS and social care; and putting a huge burden on our health service. Like many others, I have been appalled in recent years to see the number of children vaping treble. It is estimated that no fewer than one in five children have now used a vape.

That is why, in October, the Prime Minister announced action across four areas: first, creating a smoke-free generation by ensuring that children turning 15 this year, or younger, will never legally be sold tobacco products; secondly, supporting existing smokers to quit through significant new funding and support; thirdly, protecting our children from vaping by reducing the appeal and availability of vapes; and fourthly, introducing new action to enforce these rules.

I will address each priority area in turn. First, let us be crystal clear: the tobacco and vapes Bill will save many lives. Unlike other consumer products, there is no safe level of nicotine consumption; it is a product that kills up to two thirds of its long-term users and causes 70% of lung cancer deaths. We are not doing this blind. We already know that action to increase the age of sale works. When the age of sale was raised from 16 to 18 years old, smoking rates for 16 and 17-year-olds in England fell by almost a third. This is a tried and tested policy, and while we have seen some progress, I know there is a lot more to be done—almost 13% in that age bracket are still smoking.

Our modelling suggests that this measure to increase the age of sale will reduce smoking rates in England among 14 to 30-year-olds to close to zero as early as 2040. I am sure that is not early enough for my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East, and colleagues across this Chamber, who would like to see that happen sooner—as would I. Nevertheless, that is what the modelling suggests. It is progress in the right direction and will save many lives. I am committed to publishing an impact assessment very soon that will set out for colleagues a more complete picture of the costs and benefits of the Government’s smoke-free generation policy.

No one doubts that smoking massively increases the risk of stillbirth; a number of colleagues have raised that today. Smoking also causes asthma in children, and is strongly linked to dementia, stroke and heart failure in old age, as well as to disability and death throughout the life course. Non-smokers, including children, pregnant mums-to-be and their babies are exposed to second-hand smoke, putting them at serious risk through absolutely no choice of their own. This is not about freedom of choice; it is about protecting the vulnerable. Almost every minute of every day someone is admitted to hospital because of smoking, and up to 75,000 GP appointments can be attributed to smoking each month—that is over 100 GP appointments every hour. Reducing that burden will therefore save the NHS money that we can reinvest into research, frontline care and cutting waiting lists.

This measure is not just the right thing for our children’s health; there is a very strong economic case for it too. Analysis by Action on Smoking and Health has estimated the cost of tobacco to society to be £17 billion a year. That figure is out of date, and I think my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East has just updated it—the Department is very swiftly trying to verify that—but the last published data showed that the directly attributable cost of smoking to society was around £17 billion a year. That dwarfs the £10 billion a year the Treasury receives from taxes on tobacco products.

That cost of £17 billion includes £14 billion lost to productivity through smoking-related lost earnings, unemployment and early death, as well a direct cost to the NHS and to social care of £1.9 billion and £1.1 billion a year, respectively. The cost of smoking to the economy and wider society is equivalent to the annual salaries of over half a million nurses, almost 400,000 GPs, 400,000 police officers, or 400 million GP appointments.

Reducing smoking rates will bring down those costs and help our economy to become more productive. The smoke-free generation policy could provide cumulative productivity benefits of a staggering £85 billion within the next 50 years. That is why the Government are taking such bold and historic action through the tobacco and vapes Bill.

As well as stopping children starting, our second aim is to do more to help current smokers to quit. Quitting smoking is the best thing a smoker can do for their health: someone who quits before turning 30 could add 10 years to their life. That is very reassuring to me; I started smoking at the age of 14 and gave up as my 21st birthday present to myself, by which time I was smoking 40 a day. I was a student—how did I afford it? I have no idea! I am so glad I stopped. For anyone who doubts how addictive it is, I turned 60 last year and still—

[Bob Blackman]

Surely not!

[Dame Andrea Leadsom]

Yes, I know. You can’t believe that, can you?

Even to this day, talking about smoking all the time, I sometimes think, “Ooh a cigarette.” That is how addictive it is—40 years on and I still think, “Ooh!” It is that addictive, and that is absolutely appalling.

We have announced that we will more than double the funding to local stop smoking services across England to a total of £138 million a year, which will help around 360,000 people to quit every year. We are backing these efforts with substantial new money to support marketing campaigns. These measures are easy, common-sense and cost-effective ways to help people to kick the habit.

As colleagues will know, I am passionate about helping new mums, mums-to-be, new parents, new families and their babies, which is why I have asked officials to redouble our efforts to tackle smoking in pregnancy. Women who smoke during pregnancy are two and a half times more likely to give birth prematurely, and smoking is a significant driver of stillbirth. I want to do everything I can to spare parents the awful and heartbreaking tragedy of losing a baby, which we have heard so much about in this place only recently.

On average, just over one in 10 mums smoke at the time of delivery, but that number is as high as one in five in certain parts of the country, as some colleagues have spoken about already. We know that pregnant women who receive financial incentives are twice as likely to successfully quit throughout pregnancy compared to those who do not, so we are working to roll out a national financial incentive scheme by the end of 2024 to help all pregnant smokers and their partners to quit. This will build on our work over recent years to develop high-quality stop smoking support for pregnant women and their partners, with programmes such as the NHS long-term plan commitments on maternal smoking and the saving babies’ lives care bundle.

Thirdly, as I said at the start of my remarks, youth vaping has tripled in recent years. One in five children have now used a vape. I am especially worried about the damage being done to children’s bodies by illegal vapes, which is a growing concern for mums and dads across the country. The health advice is clear: young people and those who have never smoked should not vape. We have a duty to protect our children from underage vaping while their lungs and brains are still developing. There is not yet enough evidence on the long-term impact of vaping on young brains and lungs. I will not stand by while businesses knowingly and deliberately encourage children to use a product that is designed to help adults quit smoking. Those business do so with full knowledge that our children will become addicted to nicotine—well, not on my watch.

We have announced that we will take tough new action to reduce the appeal and availability of vapes through the tobacco and vapes Bill. In our recent public consultation, we sought views on restricting flavours, point-of-sale displays and packaging. On a visit to retail outlets in Hackney, I saw sweet counters and vape counters side by side, with the vapes in pretty packaging with cartoon characters and in little things that look like Coke cans. These vapes are not designed for 60-year-old smokers; they are designed for children, to get them addicted to nicotine.

The consultation has revealed something we already know: there are serious and justifiable environmental concerns over disposable vapes. It is a simple truth that more than 5 million disposable vapes are either littered or thrown away in general waste every week. That number has quadrupled in just the last year. Being sold at pocket-money prices, easy to use and widely available, disposable vapes are, of course, the product of choice for children. More than two thirds of current youth vapers use disposable products. We must and will take action.

Fourthly, a strong approach to enforcement is vital to ensure that our policy actually takes effect. The underage and illicit sale of tobacco, and more recently vapes, is undermining the work the Government are doing to regulate the industry and protect public health. We are cracking down on this evil and illicit trade by backing enforcement agencies including Border Force, HMRC and trading standards with £30 million extra per year. We will introduce powers in the tobacco and vapes Bill to give on-the-spot fines to tackle underage sales. I am pleased we can count on the strong support of trading standards officers right across the country.

Our public consultation closed on 6 December and we received nearly 28,000 valid responses. I am happy to assure all colleagues that we will publish our response in the coming weeks, ahead of the introduction of the tobacco and vapes Bill. I believe that our actions in this space show that the Government are willing to take tough, long-term decisions to protect our children and safeguard the health of future generations.

I will now answer some of the questions raised by hon. Members today; I thank them again for their contributions. In response to my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East, our public consultation closed on 6 December and within the next few weeks we will publish the consultation. Of course we will then bring forward the Bill, which is, as everybody knows, a top priority for the Prime Minister.

As for the point about a polluter pays levy, the Treasury has looked at that in detail, but so far it has decided against it. I absolutely assure colleagues that I will take that point away and consider it again.

I thank the hon. Member for City of Durham for her invitation to visit her constituency, which I would be delighted to accept. She highlighted the fact that the discrepancy in life expectancy between different parts of her constituency is 50% attributable to smoking, which is a shocking figure. That is not uncommon around the country, so we need to tackle that issue.

I say gently to the hon. Member for North Antrim that when the legal age for smoking was raised, it reduced illicit tobacco sales by 25%; the evidence suggests that far from increasing criminality, raising the legal age for smoking decreases it.

The hon. Gentleman also asked a question about Northern Ireland specifically. I am pleased to tell him that in the Bill we propose to give Northern Ireland the powers to regulate in the same way as the rest of the United Kingdom. There has been a lot of consultation with the devolved Administrations and once the Stormont Assembly—which I urge him to get back up and running —is back up and running, Northern Ireland will be able to legislate to have exactly the same regime as the rest of the United Kingdom.

--- Later in debate ---

[Bob Blackman]

I thank my right hon. Friend the Minister and the shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston (Preet Kaur Gill), for their responses. I will politely and gently point out that every single measure on smoking has always been led from the Back Benches. I well remember that some 11 years ago I was sitting where I am sitting today, leading a debate on the standardised packaging of tobacco products, and both the Opposition Front Bencher and the Government Front Bencher said, “We have no plans for and do not support standardised packaging of tobacco products.” Two years later, it was introduced. Indeed, the smoking ban, originally put forward under a Labour Government, came from Back-Bench pressure, and the Minister at the time was trying to prevent it. We must be clear that Back Benchers lead the way on tobacco legislation.

I thank all hon. Members for their contributions. It is important that we ramp up and keep the pressure on Government to take action. It is good that we have seen actions over the last few months on introducing the Khan review, but we must remember that the proposed legislation does not introduce every single measure recommended in it. I urge my right hon. Friend the Minister to have another look at the Khan review to see what else can be done, possibly without the need for legislation, and to have discussions again with the Treasury on the “polluter pays” levy. After all, we would all like to see more money invested in the health service: let us get it from the tobacco industry, rather than the hard-pressed taxpayer.

I urge the Government to ensure that we take action on vaping and on youth vaping in particular. I am really concerned, as the Minister quite rightly said in her speech, that there is not yet evidence on the damage done by vaping. It must be safer than smoking, so giving up is a good thing to do, but damage is being done and addiction is being heaped on people. In many ways, what we see in vaping is what used to happen with the packaging of tobacco products: they were made to look sexy and cool for young people. We barred that and, as a result, youth smoking dropped. That is vital.

I also welcome the fact that there is cross-party support for the legislation, so we can ensure that we get it through quickly and on to the statute book. However, let us be clear: we need to go further in order to achieve a smoke-free England. It is for not just the next generation, but every future generation to come. Our all-party parliamentary group’s manifesto sets out the measures that we need to take that will just about get us to a smoke-free England in 2030. However, we need action on those measures soon if we are to achieve that, so I commend the manifesto to the House and look forward to the full implementation.

Question put and agreed to.

Resolved,

That this House has considered the matter of a smokefree future.