Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether he plans to allocate funding to (a) local authorities and (b) clinical commissioning groups to achieve the national target of reducing the number of smokers during pregnancy to six per cent by 2022; and if he will make a statement.

Local authorities, as part of their local public health duties provide smoking cessation services for pregnant women.

To complement the role of public health, the National Health Service through the Maternity Transformation Programme is supporting the education of pregnant women on the dangers of smoking and offering support to quit. The NHS Long Term Plan strengthens further the government commitment to reducing smoking in pregnancy, committing to the introduction of a smoke-free pregnancy pathway for all expectant mothers and their partners. The NHS budget will increase by £33.9 billion in cash terms (the equivalent of £20.5 billion in real terms) by 2023/24.