Asked by: David Nuttall (Conservative - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will commission an independent assessment of the cumulative effect of all tobacco control measures on small businesses introduced since 1 January 2006.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department assesses the impact of all proposed measures before laying legislation using standard government methodology. These assessments are set out in Impact Assessments which are scrutinised by the Regulatory Policy Committee before publication alongside the Statutory Instrument. Impact Assessments specifically look at the impacts on small and micro businesses. A number of the tobacco measures contain commitments to further review the impact of the legislation within five years of them coming into force.
The Department assesses the impact of tobacco control measures on an ongoing basis as it develops policy and considers new measures. In September 2013, the Department published An Audit of the impact of the Department of Health’s Regulations upon business. A copy of the report is attached. The Audit report covered all regulations for which the Department has responsibility believed to have a potential cost to business, including those relating to tobacco control. As advised in the report, there is a robust cost-benefit case for the tobacco control regulations considered and experience shows that initiatives to reduce smoking prevalence work best in combination, with cumulative effects over time.
Asked by: David Nuttall (Conservative - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the effect of each tobacco control measure introduced in the last decade on small businesses; and whether those effects were in line with the assessment as set out in the original impact assessment.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department assesses the impact of all proposed measures before laying legislation using standard government methodology. These assessments are set out in Impact Assessments which are scrutinised by the Regulatory Policy Committee before publication alongside the Statutory Instrument. Impact Assessments specifically look at the impacts on small and micro businesses. A number of the tobacco measures contain commitments to further review the impact of the legislation within five years of them coming into force.
The Department assesses the impact of tobacco control measures on an ongoing basis as it develops policy and considers new measures. In September 2013, the Department published An Audit of the impact of the Department of Health’s Regulations upon business. A copy of the report is attached. The Audit report covered all regulations for which the Department has responsibility believed to have a potential cost to business, including those relating to tobacco control. As advised in the report, there is a robust cost-benefit case for the tobacco control regulations considered and experience shows that initiatives to reduce smoking prevalence work best in combination, with cumulative effects over time.
Asked by: David Nuttall (Conservative - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy to commission an independent assessment of the effect of any new tobacco control measures on small businesses prior to their introduction.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department assesses the impact of all proposed measures before laying legislation using standard government methodology. These assessments are set out in Impact Assessments which are scrutinised by the Regulatory Policy Committee before publication alongside the Statutory Instrument. Impact Assessments specifically look at the impacts on small and micro businesses. A number of the tobacco measures contain commitments to further review the impact of the legislation within five years of them coming into force.
The Department assesses the impact of tobacco control measures on an ongoing basis as it develops policy and considers new measures. In September 2013, the Department published An Audit of the impact of the Department of Health’s Regulations upon business. A copy of the report is attached. The Audit report covered all regulations for which the Department has responsibility believed to have a potential cost to business, including those relating to tobacco control. As advised in the report, there is a robust cost-benefit case for the tobacco control regulations considered and experience shows that initiatives to reduce smoking prevalence work best in combination, with cumulative effects over time.
Asked by: David Nuttall (Conservative - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, how many items of correspondence his Department has received from (a) the Chair and (b) other members of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health in each of the last five years.
Answered by Jane Ellison
The Department would incur a disproportionate cost in calculating how many items of correspondence have been received from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health (APPG) in each of the last five years.
592 letters from the APPG have been recorded as received by the Department’s Ministers over that period. The Group may also have written to officials direct but this information is not collected centrally.
Asked by: David Nuttall (Conservative - Bury North)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health, whether the grants awarded by the tobacco policy team in his Department are so awarded only after competitive bids have been invited.
Answered by Jane Ellison
Grants made under Section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 can be made in a number of ways. Grants awarded to Action on Smoking and Health have been assessed as most appropriate for the non-competed route.