Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he plans to take to increase public awareness of the risks of chewing (a) tobacco and (b) paan among the Indian community.

Chewing tobacco and paan are harmful to your health. There is national advice on NHS.uk about the dangers and where to seek advice through local stop smoking services to help people quit.

Local authorities also provide campaigns, advice and support within their communities. To support clinicians and local authorities, Public Health England have published the ‘Delivering Better Oral Health’ guidance that contains a chapter on tobacco use, along with self-assessment tools to improve local tobacco control work and an oral cancer registrations indicator in the Public Health Profiles data for local commissioners to access.