Smoking: Regulation

(asked on 11th January 2023) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the Answer of 6 December 2022 from the Minister for Primary Care and Public Health to Topical Question 4, Official Report, column 202, what steps he plans to take to help reduce the prevalence of smoking in England; and how those plans will affect the use of (a) e-cigarettes, (b) heat-not-burn, (c) snus, and (d) other reduced risk products.


Answered by
Neil O'Brien Portrait
Neil O'Brien
This question was answered on 17th January 2023

Smoking rates are the lowest on record, currently at 13%. These reductions have been achieved through investment in multi-modal interventions, a strong regulatory framework, effective quit campaigns and funding to local authority stop smoking services.

The most effective way to quit smoking is through behavioural support from stop smoking services, alongside a nicotine substituting product, such as a vape (e-cigarette). We recently published the Nicotine Vaping in England Report which is available at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nicotine-vaping-in-england-2022-evidence-update

The Government encourages users to quit all forms of tobacco and therefore does not recommend the use of heated tobacco products. Snus is banned in the United Kingdom and we have no plans to introduce additional tobacco products to the market as we have safer nicotine delivery products currently available for smokers to switch to.

Reticulating Splines