Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will place in the Library the reviews his Department has conducted of the effectiveness of tobacco control measures introduced in the last 20 years.

The Department assesses the impact of tobacco control measures on an ongoing basis as it develops policy and considers new measures. In September 2013, the Department published An Audit of the impact of the Department of Health’s Regulations upon business. The link to this report is below:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/department-of-health-regulations-impact-on-business

As advised in the report, there is a robust cost-benefit case for the tobacco control regulations considered and experience shows that initiatives to reduce smoking prevalence work best in combination, with cumulative effects over time.