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** 23 June 2021
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** UK
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** Reducing smoking to become business of all hospital nurses in region (#1)
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** County Council has seized almost 95,000 illegal cigarettes in Oxfordshire (#2)
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** ICS boundary changes will worsen patient care, Hancock warned (#3)
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** International
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** New Zealand: Wellington wants to ban smoking at outdoor dining areas on council land by next year (#4)
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** US: Philip Morris to move headquarters from NY to Connecticut (#5)
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Parliamentary questions (#6)
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** UK
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**
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** A groundbreaking stop-smoking initiative is being rolled out in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw which will see all hospital nurses asked to offer support for patients to quit smoking as part of routine care. Nursing staff in the region will undergo training to support the launch of the QUIT programme, which aims to prevent up to 2,000 deaths and 4,000 hospital readmissions in a year across the area.

The scheme will offer nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and specialist support to all patients over the age of 12-years-old who smoke, as part of their hospital stay. Nurses across the eight acute, mental health, and children’s NHS trusts in the area will ask patients about their smoking behaviour and offer brief advice on available support and treatment, before giving patients NRT on an opt-out basis. QUIT will also offer support to parents of children admitted to hospital who smoke and to nursing staff who smoke.

Each hospital will have a team of specialist tobacco treatment advisers, funded by the charity Yorkshire Cancer Research, whose job will be to check for withdrawal symptoms, manage tobacco treatment medications, and arrange ongoing community-based support to keep patients on track after they have left hospital. The programme is based on a successful evidence-based programme that was run in Ottawa, Canada, working on the principle that smoking should be treated as tobacco addiction rather than a lifestyle choice.

The programme aims to cut the overall smoking rate in the area to under 10%. Smoking rates in South Yorkshire and Bassetlaw are currently among the highest in the UK, ranging from 13.9% in Sheffield to 19.9% in Doncaster.

Source: Nursing Times, 22 June 2021
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** Oxfordshire County Council’s trading standards team believes buying illegal cigarettes in shops may be a thing of the past. This follows the success of the council’s stop illegal tobacco campaign, as it nears the fourth anniversary of its launch.

Jody Kerman, Oxfordshire County Council's Head of Trading Standards, said: "In the last few weeks we have completed 15 covert test purchase attempts and used tobacco detection dogs to inspect 22 premises. While we had two seizures in May and investigations are ongoing, both those premises have since been revisited and are now in compliance. No illegal tobacco was detected during any of the other test purchases and inspections. At the moment, at least, it seems like Oxfordshire's shops are free of illegal tobacco."

In the four years the council’s campaign has been operational, the team has made 37 successful covert test purchases and 36 separate seizures of illegal-tobacco products. The team has seized a total of 94,480 illegal cigarettes, 16,750 grams of illegal hand rolling tobacco, and 115,220 grams of illegal shisha tobacco. Trading standards also made 16 successful prosecutions with custodial sentences totalling 66 months, over £21,000 in prosecution costs awarded and £95,000 in confiscation orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act.

Councillor Neil Fawcett, Oxfordshire County Council's Cabinet Member for Community Services and Safety, said: "These are tremendous successes in our quest to remove illegal tobacco from shops and streets. […] The aim is to reduce overall prevalence of smoking to less than one in 20 people by 2025 and, in doing so, achieve our vision to inspire the first smokefree generation in Oxfordshire. But we won't be sitting on our hands - the team will continue to do periodic spot checks using sniffer dogs, as we turn our focus to other methods of supply, including online and through social media."

Source: Oxford Mail, 22 June 2021

See also: Jack FM - Oxfordshire County Council seized almost 100 thousand illegal cigarettes from shops ([link removed])
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** NHS leaders have warned the health secretary Matt Hancock that plans to change integrated care systems’ boundaries risk worsening patient care. Hancock has stated that, as part of making ICSs statutory, their boundaries should match those of top-tier local authorities other than for a small number of exceptions approved by ministers.

This has angered NHS leaders who feel that their current arrangements, which fall foul of this rule, are working well. NHS Providers chief executive Chris Hopson said that the decision will cause “considerable disruption at a time when there are many other priorities”. Hopson added that any implementation plan must be ''co-designed’’ with NHS providers so that they can ''preserve the improvements to patient care they have worked so hard to secure over the last few years’’.

Hopson also said he was concerned that the Department of health and Social Care’s (DHSC) failure so far to engage providers over the issue could cause further problems down the line as the health secretary takes on additional directional powers over the NHS.

Formal recommendations for boundary changes were due to be submitted by Monday 21st June by NHS England to DHSC. It is thought that whilst many NHSE officials also think the boundary changes are unnecessary, according to HSJ, they will largely leave the decision to ministers. Some Conservative local politicians have lobbied for ICSs to cover their full counties and local authorities.

HSJ was told NHSE is exploring “mitigations” for boundary providers hit by boundary changes, such as turning them into provider collaboratives which can straddle ICS and local authority boundaries and be contracted by a single ICS. Decisions on mitigations are expected from ministers in the coming weeks
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Source: HSJ, 21 June 2021
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** International
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** Wellington City Council is proposing that outdoor dining areas on the city’s footpaths, waterfront, and parks be made smokefree by early 2022. The proposal is part of the council’s efforts to help New Zealand become smokefree by 2025 and to set new health and safety rules for the city’s public places. The proposal was made by councillors on Tuesday 22nd June and a final decision will be made in October following public feedback in July and August.

If approved, bar and restaurant owners would have six months to comply with the new rules, which would also apply to people running trading activities or events on public land. There are currently 100 bars and restaurants with footpath dining licenses in Wellington City, 67 of which are in the city centre and 33 elsewhere, but only half are smokefree. A further 13 bars and restaurants have waterfront or city park outdoor dining licenses, four of which are smokefree.

Currently, smokefree venues are exempt from annual license fees but places that allow smoking are charged an annual fee. Under the proposed new rules, the council would not be able to issue spot fines to reinforce the new rules but could decline license applications and renewals and charge fines for license breaches.


Source: Stuff, 23 June 2021
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** Philip Morris will relocate its corporate headquarters from New York City to southwest Connecticut, officials said on Tuesday 22nd June. The new headquarters are expected to be open by Summer 2022.

In a statement, Philip Morris International cited the ''technological know-how, future-forward thinking, and open-minded approach to problem-solving’’ of Connecticut. The company also has offices in Switzerland and employs more than 71,000 people around the world.

Amber Herting, a spokesperson for the American Cancer Society Cancer Action Network in Connecticut, said that now that the tobacco industry was moving to Connecticut, state lawmakers should fully fund tobacco prevention and control programs and end the sale of all flavoured tobacco products, including menthol cigarettes.

Source: Daily Mail, 22 June 2021
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** Parliamentary Activity
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**
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**
PQ 1-2: Tobacco - Regulations; Electronic Cigarettes and Tobacco

1. Asked by David Jones, Clwyd West

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to regulate non-nicotine products intended for vaping which are not currently covered by the provisions of the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016.


2. Asked by David Jones, Clwyd West

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans he has to improve public access to information about (a) e-cigarettes and (b) reduced-harm alternatives to combustible tobacco.

Answered by Jo Churchill, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care

The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.


Source: Hansard, 23 June 2021
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** PQ3: Electronic Cigarettes

Asked by David Jones, Clwyd West

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of appointing a champion to promote public awareness of the benefits of e-cigarettes as a reduced-harm alternative to combustible tobacco for people seeking to quit smoking.

Answered by Jo Churchill, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care

No assessment has been made.

Source: Hansard, 23 June 2021
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