Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to help prevent children from taking up (a) smoking or (b) vaping.

The current Tobacco Control Plan for England has an objective to reduce the number of 15 year olds who regularly smoke from 8% to 3% or less by the end of 2022. The latest available NHS Digital data from 2018 shows a prevalence of 5.3%. This data also shows that approximately 25% of 11 to 15 year olds had ever used an e-cigarette, but regular use of e-cigarettes (use at least once a week) remained low at 2% with occasional use (using an e-cigarette sometimes, but less than once a week) at around 4%.

Informing children about the dangers of smoking and vaping is part of the statutory health education curriculum. Local stop smoking services are available to anyone, including young people. We continue to monitor e-cigarette use and smoking among young people.