Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will (a) make an estimate of the number of south Asians who use chewed tobacco products in the UK and (b) conduct a formal assessment of the impact of those products on people's health.

We have no plans to make a specific estimate or conduct a formal assessment. While comparative data on the incidence of oral cancers in Asian and Asian British people in relation to other ethnic groups in the adult population is collected, this does not specifically record cases in south Asians.

Chewed tobacco products are harmful to health and can cause various cancers, including oral, oesophageal and pancreatic cancers. It remains the Government’s policy to assist people to quit all forms of tobacco use through behavioural support from stop smoking services, nicotine replacement therapy or e-cigarettes.