Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the cost to the NHS of treating smoking-related diseases in each of the last three years.

The Department does not maintain an annual record of the cost to the National Health Service of treating people with smoking-related diseases.

However, in 2015, Action on Smoking and Health, in its publication Smoking Still Kills, estimated that the total cost of smoking to society in England alone is approximately £13.8 billion a year. This figure includes a £2 billion direct cost to the NHS of treating smoking related diseases.

The Department has not published any further information on the costs of smoking to the NHS and does not have information on health costs over a lifetime of smokers compared to non-smokers.