Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, pursuant to the Answer of 3 November to Question 74727 on Smoking, if he will publish data on whether England is on schedule to achieve or exceed targets on adult smoking.

In the 2017 Tobacco Control Plan, the Government set the ambition for adult smoking rates in England to reduce to 12% or less by the end 2022. In 2011 rates were 19.8%, and in 2019 rates were 13.9%. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, data from 2020 is not comparable to previous years. However, based on the trend to 2019, we expect to meet our 2022 target.

National smoking prevalence data for 2022 will be available in 2023 through the Office for National Statistics’ ‘Adult smoking habits in the UK’ publication.