Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the implications for his Department's policies of Public Health England's recent findings that electronic cigarettes are 95 per cent less harmful than conventional cigarettes.

The Public Health England (PHE) report is consistent with the Government’s current policy that the best thing a smoker can do for their health is to quit smoking and quit for good. Evidence in the United Kingdom indicates that e-cigarettes can help people quit smoking, with similar or better results than nicotine replacement therapies such as patches or gum.

E-cigarettes are, however, not harmless and there is a lack of evidence on their effects in long term use. The Department has and will continue to monitor all emerging evidence and consider it in developing policy. PHE has been commissioned to update their evidence report on e-cigarettes annually until the end of this Parliament and to include within its quit smoking campaigns consistent messaging about the safety of e-cigarettes.

There are no current plans to ban the use of e-cigarettes in public places in England.