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** 23 March 2021
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** UK
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** Government spends £1 million on private recruitment contract amid NHS pay row (#1)
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** Smoking in England costs local care services £1.2 billion each year (#2)
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** Wales: Joint working on new legislation regarding smoking on hospital grounds (#3)
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** International
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** Australia: Tasmanian Parliament to debate increasing legal smoking age to 21 years (#4)
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Parliamentary questions (#5)
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** UK
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**

Ministers are spending nearly £1 million on a private recruitment firm to find temporary staff to set up the new National Institute for Health Protection (NIHP). The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) has signed a 10-month contract with Hunter Healthcare Resourcing Limited for £962,830.

The Prime Minister Boris Johnson was accused by Labour of “squandering” taxpayers’ cash on the reorganisation when hundreds of experienced Public Health England staff are available.

The recruitment firm will reportedly fill five finance roles for the organisation, which will tackle health threats such as infectious diseases. However, it remains unclear who will take on PHE’s work on tackling obesity, reducing smoking and dealing with health inequalities after it is scrapped.

Dido Harding, boss of the £37 billion Test and Trace system, has been temporarily put in charge of the new body. Health Secretary Matt Hancock is expected to announce further details this week.

Source: Mirror, 22 March 2021
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** A new report by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) shows that smokers in England need care 10 years sooner than non-smokers, which places a considerable burden on local social care services.

Landman Economics analysis for ASH finds that 1.5 million people need help with everyday tasks, such as dressing, walking across a room, and using the toilet due to smoking. This high level of social care needed has a significant impact on local authority social care budgets, ASH warns.

It is estimated that 102,500 people are receiving local authority-funded care due to smoking (85,000 in their home and 17,500 in residential care). This adds up to £1.2 billion each year, equivalent to 8% of the country’s social care budget for home and residential adult care.

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, said, “This report reveals the shocking extent to which smoking damages the quality of people’s lives, and of those around them, before going on to kill them prematurely. On average, smokers need social care at 63, ten years earlier than non-smokers, so if the Government truly wants to extend healthy life expectancy by five years by 2035, ending smoking is a priority. However, achieving the Smokefree 2030 target won’t be easy and requires investment at a time when the Government has a massive budget deficit. Tobacco manufacturers, on the other hand, remain extremely profitable and should be made to pay a levy on their sales as they do in the US to help make smoking obsolete.”

Councillor Ian Hudspeth, chairman of the Local Government Association’s (LGA) Community Wellbeing Board, said: “The substantial impact smoking has on council finances and social care costs reinforce the case for urgent investment to reduce smoking and achieve the Government’s ambition of a smokefree country by 2030. Public health funding has not kept pace with funding for the NHS, and this must change if local government is to play a full role in improving the health of the nation. The forthcoming Spending Review must be the moment to put public health and social care on a sustainable footing so that councils can continue their vital work in supporting, promoting and improving people’s wellbeing.”

Source: Local Gov, 23 March 2021

See also: ASH Report - The cost of smoking to the social care system ([link removed])
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** Denbighshire County Council and Betsi Cadwaladr University Health Board (BCUHB) are working in partnership to remind residents that hospital grounds, as well as school grounds, public playgrounds, outdoor daycare and child-minding settings, are now required to be smokefree.

New regulations came into force on March 1, making it illegal to smoke on hospital grounds. While a voluntary ban has been in place across the health board for some years, this is the first time it has been enshrined in law. The new laws, introduced by the Welsh Government across Wales, build on the smoking ban in hospitals and other public buildings introduced in 2007.

The new law means that all parts of the hospital grounds will be smokefree. Anyone found breaking the law could face a £100 fine.

Emlyn Jones, Denbighshire County Council’s head of Planning and Public Protection, said: “Our main focus will be on assisting the health board in providing advice and guidance. Our officers will be dealing sympathetically and compassionately with patients experiencing difficult circumstances in line with the guidance contained within the legislation. I would also like to thank the health board for their increased efforts around encouraging people to quit smoking in light of this new legislation.”

Source: North Wales Pioneer, 22 March 2021
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** International
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** Legislation to increase the legal smoking age to 21 years in Tasmania will be debated in the Legislative Council today (23 March 2021). The T21 bill, which was first introduced to the upper house in 2018, would ban the sale of smoking products for people under 21.

The state’s small business lobby has fiercely criticised the bill, but it has won praise from those in the health and community sectors. The move aims to reduce the state’s high smoking rates among 18 – 24 years of age.

Australian Medical Association member Adrian Reynolds, University of Tasmania Rural Clinical School senior lecturer Nick Towke, and dentistry professor Len Crocombe in a statement said an increased smoking age had slowed the uptake of smoking by young people in Singapore. They said: “T21 will limit smoking experimentation by effectively reducing the sharing of smoking products within schools because students will no longer be old enough to legally purchase smoking products. Evidence supports the need for a comprehensive and multipronged approach to tobacco control measures that reinforce each other. Focussing primarily on education is no match for the sophisticated marketing strategies of the tobacco industry.”
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Source: The Examiner, 22 March 2021
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** Parliamentary Activity
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**
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** PQ1 E-cigarettes: Adverstising

Asked by Mary Glindon, North Tyneside

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on reducing levels of smoking of improving public perception of e-cigarettes and vape products, including allowing manufactures, retailers and brands of e-cigarette products to communicate comparative health claims and switching messages that are agreed by the relevant public health bodies to adult smokers.

Answered by Caroline Dinenage, Minister of State for Digital and Culture

E-cigarettes in the UK are tightly regulated by the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 (TRPR) and the Nicotine Inhaling Products (Age of Sale and Proxy Purchasing) Regulations 2015 (NIP). These regulations aim to reduce the risk of harm to children; to protect against any risk of renormalisation of tobacco use; and to provide assurance on relative safety for users. The regulations include restrictions on mainstream TV and radio advertising; prevent sale to under 18s; and limit both tank sizes and nicotine content.

My department works closely with the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) who facilitate the self-regulation of the UK advertising sector through the UK Code of Broadcast Advertising (BCAP Code) and The UK Code of Non-broadcast Advertising and Direct & Promotional Marketing (CAP Code). The ASA has a clear framework for advertisers to follow in relation to what is and is not allowed when making health claims about vapes or e-cigarettes.

It would appear that the key consideration for advertisers is whether their marketing communications do anything further than provide basic, factual information about the products. Any content that appears to make the product seem more attractive is likely to be regarded as promotional and therefore likely to be ruled against by the ASA and removed.

More information about the ASA’s approach can be viewed here:
[link removed] ([link removed])

Source: Hansard, 22 March 2021
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** PQ2: Tobacco

Asked by Sir Charles Walker, Broxbourne

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to bring forward proposals in the Green Paper, Advancing our health: prevention in the 2020s, in the upcoming Tobacco Control Plan; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Jo Churchill Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care

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** The Prevention Green Paper set out an ambition to go ‘smoke-free’ in England by 2030. We have committed to publishing a new Tobacco Control Plan this summer to outline our Smokefree 2030 plans.

Source: Hansard, 22 March 2021
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PQ3: Smoking

Asked by Sir Charles Walker, Broxbourne

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if he will take steps to establish a Smokefree 2030 Fund in Budget 2021, funded by the tobacco industry, to help the UK meet its smoking reduction targets; and if he will make a statement.

Answered by Jo Churchill Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care

We are unable to comment on announcements for Budget 2021. However, the Government is committed to addressing the harms from tobacco and will set out its ambition for England to be smoke-free by 2030 in a new Tobacco Control Plan to be published this summer.

Source: Hansard, 22 March 2021
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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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