Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy that future grants awarded for work previously conducted by Action on Smoking and Health will be awarded on a competitive basis.

Grants made under Section 64 of the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968 can be made in a number of ways. For the activities delivered by the current grant, awarded to Action on Smoking and Health, it was assessed that the non-competed tender route was most appropriate. Any future applications for funding under the Section 64 grant system will be reviewed by the Department in accordance with the Cabinet Office Minimum Standards which came into force in December 2016.