Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions his Department has had with the devolved Administrations on the development of the Tobacco Control Plan.
Answered by Maggie Throup
Departmental officials regularly meet with the devolved administrations to discuss tobacco control matters and share best practice, including progress on the forthcoming Tobacco Control Plan.
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the answer of 27 July 2021 to Question 36588 on Tobacco, if he will publish his planned timetable for publication of the Tobacco Control Plan for England.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Department is currently in the process of drafting the new Tobacco Control Plan working closely with Public Health England and other Government departments. We expect the final Tobacco Control Plan to be published by the end of the year.
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make an assessment of the potential merits of (a) creating a separate regulatory category for non-combustible nicotine products and (b) including snus in that category.
Answered by Maggie Throup
There are no current plans to make such an assessment. However, the Department is due to publish its post implementation review on the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 by the end of the year. Following this review, the Department will consider the need for any regulatory changes, including on non-combustible nicotine products and oral tobacco.
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what scientific research-based evidence he plans to use to inform his decision on whether or not to legalise snus.
Answered by Maggie Throup
The Department is currently undertaking a post-implementation review of the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016. We have analysed research and evidence submitted through a public consultation, including on oral tobacco, known as snus and on the harms of tobacco use more generally. The review will inform our decision on whether such products should be regulated in the future.
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether his Department's next review of e-cigarettes and other novel nicotine delivery systems will be conducted by the Office for Health Promotion; when that review will be published; and whether that review will include a chapter on heated tobacco.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not recognise the term ‘Authoritative Assessment’. The next iteration of Vaping in England was commissioned by Public Health England in 2020 and is being conducted by an international panel of tobacco control experts led by King’s College London. This will be the eighth evidence review and it will cover the relative harms of nicotine delivery products.
The report will include a summary of the Cochrane Collaboration’s systematic review of the health effects of heated tobacco products and analysis of data on patterns of use. It is expected that this will be published in March 2022 by the Office for Health Promotion, following its launch on 1 October 2021.
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether Public Health England will provide this Department with (a) an Authoritative Assessment and (b) the eighth evidence review on relative harms of nicotine delivery products in 2022.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The Department does not recognise the term ‘Authoritative Assessment’. The next iteration of Vaping in England was commissioned by Public Health England in 2020 and is being conducted by an international panel of tobacco control experts led by King’s College London. This will be the eighth evidence review and it will cover the relative harms of nicotine delivery products.
The report will include a summary of the Cochrane Collaboration’s systematic review of the health effects of heated tobacco products and analysis of data on patterns of use. It is expected that this will be published in March 2022 by the Office for Health Promotion, following its launch on 1 October 2021.
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of bringing forward legislative proposals to legalise the use of snus, tobacco-based products.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
No assessment has been made and oral tobacco products are banned under The Tobacco and Related Product Regulations 2016 (TRPR). The Department is currently undertaking a post implementation review of TRPR which will consider if the regulations have met their objectives, or if any future regulatory changes should be considered. The report of the review will be published by the end of the year.
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will request the Committee on Toxicity to undertake a toxicological evaluation of the effect of nicotine delivery levels in e-cigarettes.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
There are no plans to do so.
The Department and Public Health England previously asked the Committee on Toxicity (CoT) to review the potential toxicological risks from electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS) and electronic non-nicotine delivery systems. This included information on ENDS e-liquids that contain nicotine, concentrations, and nicotine exposure. The CoT’s statement is available at the following link:
https://cot.food.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2020-09/COT%20E%28N%29NDS%20statement%202020-04.pdf
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will make it his policy to conduct further reviews of e-cigarettes and other novel nicotine delivery systems after his Department has published its eighth evidence review on those matters in March 2022.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
Further plans for reviewing the evidence for e-cigarettes and other novel nicotine delivery systems are being considered and will be outlined in the new Tobacco Control Plan for England which will be published later this year.
Asked by: David Jones (Conservative - Clwyd West)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to improve public access to information about (a) e-cigarettes and (b) reduced-harm alternatives to combustible tobacco.
Answered by Jo Churchill - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)
The National Health Service website provides public information on the harms of smoking and advice to help people quit smoking, including information on using e-cigarettes. In addition, central stop smoking campaigns such as Stoptober have supported the use of e-cigarettes as a tool to help smokers quit.
To support our Smokefree 2030 ambition, the upcoming Tobacco Control Plan will set out a range of measures which will help smokers to quit, including through the use of less harmful products such as e-cigarettes.