Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect of reductions in the public health grant for local authorities on local smoking cessation services in (a) Barnsley Central constituency, (b) Yorkshire and the Humber and (c) the UK.

Local authorities, funded by the Government’s public health grant, have responsibility for providing a programme of tobacco control that meets the needs of their populations, including the provision of locally commissioned services. Over the next five years, local authorities will receive £16 billion through the public health grant.

The evidence shows that specialist stop smoking services are the most effective way to help smokers quit. Public Health England supports local authorities by developing and distributing information and advice for the commissioning of effective regional approaches to tobacco control which maximise value for money at a local level.