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** 21 June 2023
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** UK
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** Steve Barclay: Australia’s vape ban could help Britain (#1)
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** Letwin: Prevention ‘much cheaper’ than dealing with ‘after effects’ (#2)
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** Opinion: Safety checks run down and boom time for criminals: this is why the UK is becoming the ‘dustbin of Europe’ (#3)
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** Parliamentary activity
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** Backbench debate - Achieving Smokefree 2030: cutting smoking and stopping kids vaping (#4)
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** Health and Social Care Committee session on the work of DHSC: smoking and vaping (#5)
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** UK
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** Steve Barclay: Australia’s vape ban could help Britain

The government will seek to share lessons on vaping regulation with Australia, where nicotine e-cigarettes are only available on prescription.

Steve Barclay, the health secretary, told the health and social care select committee there were “particular concerns” around vapes being marketed to children and ministers were “very actively looking” at how to combat it.

The government in Australia announced a crackdown last month that will ban the importation and sale of e-cigarettes, whether or not they contain nicotine, unless they are supplied by prescription through a licensed pharmacist.

Barclay said: “I met a leading Australian figure this morning in terms of some of the lessons around the vaping industry in Australia, and how we can look at what has been done there and are there any lessons that we can share with each other.”

He said health officials were keen to strike a balance to ensure smokers could use the products to help them to kick the habit.

Asked what work the government was doing on vaping, Barclay said that HMRC was to publish an updated illicit tobacco strategy and he pointed to an announcement by Rishi Sunak last month in which the prime minister vowed to close a loophole that allowed the vaping industry to give free samples of vapes to children in England.

There was a need to balance possible benefits, such as “50,000 to 70,000 additional quits per year in England, potentially from vaping”, with “the risk particularly around children”, he said.

Source: The Times, 21 June 2023

Editorial note: Steve Barclay did not specifically reference the Australian policy of only making nicotine e-cigarettes available on prescription. Barclay stated that: “I met a leading Australian figure this morning in terms of some of the lessons around the vaping industry in Australia, and how we can look at what has been done there and are there any lessons that we can share with each other.”

See also: ASH – Youth vaping consultation response ([link removed]) |DHSC – How we are cutting smoking and stopping children vaping ([link removed])
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Read Here ([link removed])


** Letwin: Prevention ‘much cheaper’ than dealing with ‘after effects’

Spending on health prevention “much, much cheaper” than dealing with the “after effects”, Sir Oliver Letwin has said.

The former cabinet secretary was giving evidence to the UK Covid Inquiry in London on his time in government, first as minister for government policy and then as chancellor of the duchy of Lancaster between 2011-2016.

Sir Oliver told the inquiry that there needs to be a shift in the culture of government spending “so that it’s accepted that consciously spending money that we hope will never be used”.

“It would save us a huge amount,” Sir Oliver said.

Source: LGC, 20 June 2023.
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** Opinion: Safety checks run down and boom time for criminals: this is why the UK is becoming the ‘dustbin of Europe’

Writing for the Guardian, Polly Toynbee, a Guardian columnist, writes how cuts to trading standards teams are putting the public at greater risk.

Toynbee writes that trading standards officers (TSOs) are responsible for enforcing more than 290 pieces of legislation including tobacco advertising and illicit tobacco and e-cigarettes. The Chartered Trading Standards Institute (CTSI) reports that there are half the number of TSOs now than there were a decade ago. Toynbee specifically highlights the example of Enfield council which “may be about to lose its entire trading standards department” due to budget cuts.

The CTSI are also reporting that the cost-of-living crisis was driving people to buy “cheap and dangerous counterfeit goods”.

Toynbee concludes by saying that the sharp decline in TSOs is resulting in a safety net that is becoming “perilously frayed”.

Source: The Guardian, 20 June 2023.
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Read Here ([link removed])


** Parliamentary activity
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** Backbench debate - Achieving Smokefree 2030: cutting smoking and stopping kids vaping

Yesterday, 20 June, MPs held a backbench debate to consider Government’s announcement in April on ‘Achieving Smokefree 2030: cutting smoking and stopping kids vaping.’ The debate was led by Bob Blackman, MP for Harrow East and Chairman of the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Smoking and Health and Mary Kelly Foy, MP for the City of Durham and APPG vice-chair.

Blackman (Con) opened the debate by welcoming the measures announced by the Government in April but stating that “they are insufficiently ambitious, as they provide only a quarter of the funding called for by the Government’s own independent review last year.” To remedy this, he called on the Government to implement a ‘polluter pays’ levy on tobacco manufacturers to raise the funding needed. Blackman also welcomed the measures announced by the Government to tackle youth vaping and called on them to add a £5 excise tax to disposable vapes to make them less affordable and make it easier to control their use.

Blackman adds that trading standards play a key role in preventing the illicit tobacco trade and called on the Minister to publish “further detail on his plans to strengthen the track and trace system” for tobacco products.

• Mary Kelly Foy (Lab) followed by highlighting inequalities that exist with smoking, where areas with high deprivation tend to have higher rates of smoking prevalence. She also added her support to a polluter pays levy and raising the age of sale of tobacco to 21.

• Jim Shannon (DUP), MP for Strangford, highlighted the impact of smoking in Northern Ireland and welcomed the commitment to hold a consultation on inserts with health information in cigarette packs. He also said that Northern Ireland is particularly geographically vulnerable to the illicit tobacco trade and called for greater collaboration between authorities in Northern Ireland and Great Britain to tackle illicit trade.

• Liz Twist (Lab), MP for Blaydon, raises the issue of high smoking rates among those with mental health problems and that without targeted intervention they are likely to hit smokefree many years after the general population.

• Hywel Williams (Plaid Cymru), MP for Arfon, argued that measures such as raising the age of sale to 21 and putting warnings on individual cigarettes can only be implemented by the UK parliament. He called on the UK Government to back the measures recommended in the Khan review including a ‘polluter pays’ levy on tobacco manufacturers, stating that these measures “would benefit Wales but that need action from Westminster.”

• Martyn Day (SNP), MP for Linlithgow and East Falkirk, discusses the high prevalence of smoking in Scotland and lends his support to a levy on the tobacco industry.

• Andrew Gwynne (Lab), Shadow Public Health Minister, questions the minister on his confidence on achieving smokefree 2030 given estimates from Cancer Research UK suggest we are unlikely to hit this target until 2039. He also asks whether the April announcement will replace the tobacco control plan, whether the minister would consider a polluter pays levy or increasing the age of sale. He also asks about the updated guidance for government engagement with the tobacco industry and how this will be disseminated to all branches of government.

Responding, Neil O’Brien (Con), Minister for Primary Care and Public Health reiterated the Government’s commitment to achieving smokefree 2030 and pointed to recent announcements such as the swap to stop scheme and financial incentives for pregnant women. On youth vaping, the Minister said that a consultation into the issue has just closed and they will publish their response within 12 weeks. O’Brien also announced that the government will be launching a consultation into pack inserts shortly.

Source: Hansard, 20 June 2023

See also: The Khan review - Making smoking obsolete ([link removed]) | ASH - All Party Group calls on government to make Big Tobacco pay to deliver a Smokefree 2030 ([link removed]) |DHSC- Updated Guidance for government engagement with the tobacco industry ([link removed])
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Read transcript here ([link removed])


** Health and Social Care Committee session on the work of DHSC: smoking and vaping

During a session of the Health and Social Care Committee on the Work of the Department for Health and Social Care, MPs heard from Steve Barclay, Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care. During the session, the Minister:

• Shared there was no set date for a new Tobacco Control Plan.
• Noted the Government’s current approach focuses on protecting children from vaping and schemes to incentivise adults to stop smoking.
• Highlighted high prevalence of ex-smokers among adult vaping population as an example of progress in reducing smoking rates.
• In response to a question from Committee Member Paul Bristow MP on whether there is a need for independent research on heated tobacco products and whether this will appear in any smokefree plan in the future, the Minister said: "I'm very happy to go and look at that specifically… In terms of other products we are very open to looking at what concerns the committee has and where issues are raised by the committee very happy to take those away."
• Did not give a specific timeline for when the Department would respond to the recent consultation on youth vaping.
• Said the Department is live to issues around disposable vapes, nicotine content, minimum quality standards, flavours and packaging.
• Said that he recently met a leading Australian figure “in terms of some of the lessons around the vaping industry in Australia, and how we can look at what has been done there and are there any lessons that we can share with each other.”

The section on tobacco and vaping is from 16:51:28 - 17:14:00

Source: Parliamentlive.tv, 20 June 2023
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ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.

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