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Smoking costs the UK economy more than £19 billion a year, according to a new report which urges the government to increase tobacco taxes to help society to become “smokefree.” According to the International Longevity Centre UK (ILC) study, the health impact of tobacco can affect one’s ability to work, and overall earnings could be 1.9% greater if smokers had never started.
ILC’s research suggests that smoking impairs economic activity by increasing disability as smokers and ex-smokers live fewer years in good health. The report found that the “UK annual tobacco duties are worth £9 billion a year — less than half the amount [of the economic cost of smoking].” Although smoking is in decline, 14.1% of adults still smoke and many former smokers live with long-term effects such as cardiovascular disease and cancer.
The report found that a typical life-long smoker can expect to lose ten years of life expectancy compared with someone who has never smoked. The think tank said funding for smoking cessation services had “dropped since austerity measures were put in place in 2009.”
Les Mayhew, head of global research at ILC, said: “The pandemic has shown that smokers and ex-smokers are more likely to end up in hospital if they have Covid. They work fewer years, are less productive and quit work sooner. Their later years are more likely to be marred by ill health, which means less time for consumption.”
ILC said that the government needed to raise the legal age for purchasing tobacco to 21; reduce affordability by increasing tobacco taxes; reduce the size of the illicit market by introducing a licensing system for retailers and wholesalers, and support smoking cessation programmes locally.
Source: The Times, 2 August 2021
See also: ILC - Smoking costs UK economy in excess of £19 billion a year, new report finds
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MPs serving on informal parliamentary groups while working in second jobs are facing scrutiny from a powerful parliamentary committee over concerns that they could exploit a lobbying loophole.
An inquiry by the Commons standards committee will examine whether MPs who sit on All-Party Parliamentary Groups (APPGs) that lobby for certain industries should no longer be paid by organisations in those same industries. The move comes days after the committee launched an inquiry into APPGs, which have long been suspected as a way for vested interests to further their commercial agendas.
Laurence Robertson, the Conservative MP for Tewkesbury, is the former chair and one of the vice-chairs of the Betting and Gaming APPG. One of the group’s aims is “to act as a go-between for the industry, parliament and government; and to advise parliament and the government on gambling-related issues”. But Robertson is also paid £2,000 a month to be the parliamentary adviser on sport and safer gambling to the Betting and Gaming Council. A spokesperson for Robertson said he was not an officer of the APPG and held the post of co-chair for six months.
Tom Brake, director of the campaign group Unlock Democracy, has written to Chris Bryant, the standards committee chair, asking him to examine the dual roles of MPs on APPGs and close what they believe is a loophole in the rules. “Unlock Democracy would contend that these MPs (and many others in a similar position) should at the very least recuse themselves from any APPG activity that seeks to influence government policy, secure parliamentary debates, in the area championed by the APPG. A more transparent approach, and one that could not be the subject of misinterpretation, would be for the lobbying rules to be amended to state that being a paid adviser to a company, industry or sector and being a member of a relevant APPG, or a number of relevant APPGs, was a breach of the lobbying rules.”
The current lobbying rules in the MPs’ code of conduct are “intended to avoid the perception that outside individuals or organisations may reward members, through payment or in other ways, in the expectation that their actions in the house will benefit that outside individual or organisation, even if they do not fall within the strict definition of paid advocacy.”
Chris Bryant said the committee would examine Unlock Democracy’s claims. He said: “APPGs are an important means of raising awareness about major national issues, but the name of parliament should never be taken in vain for commercial or personal gain. That’s why we’re doing an inquiry.”
Source: The Guardian, 2 August 2021
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Vectura, the lung drug developer, risks being blocked from university research tie-ups following a £927 million takeover by the world’s biggest tobacco seller. The swoop by Marlboro cigarettes maker Philip Morris for Vectura has raised doubts over the future of its partnerships with academic institutions due to ethical policies that prohibit research funding from being accepted from tobacco companies.
Vectura has funded research at universities including Imperial College London and King’s College London into areas such as optimising “biophysical interactions for lung retention of inhaled medicines.” The company is also listed as a partner of the University of Nottingham and the University College London.
The University of Nottingham said: “The university’s policy is that it does not accept donations or research funding from tobacco companies. Should this takeover [by PMI] go ahead, we would consider any future arrangements in line with our Ethical Framework.”
Kent Buse, the director of the global Healthier Societies Program at The George Institute for Global Health and a visiting professor at Imperial, said the takeover could see Vectura blocked from many institutions. He said: “My view is that university funding would have to halt as, at the end of the day, it would ultimately be supporting PMI shareholders.”
Vectura last month agreed to a takeover by Philip Morris International, positioned as an effort by the US firm to transform itself into a “wellness company.” Vectura develops technology used in inhalers prescribed by the NHS to treat illnesses such as asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD).
Source: The Telegraph, 1 August 2021
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The Treasury received a £1.35billion windfall last year after smokers were forced to buy legal cigarettes because Covid made smuggling nearly impossible. The welcome side-effect of travel and border restrictions made it harder for organised crime networks and people who bring in duty-free cigarettes.
HMRC estimates that the sale of illegal tobacco products has resulted in a tax revenue loss of more than £47billion since 2000. Newsagents have become one of the main sources of sale. Four shops were temporarily closed down last week after dogs sniffed out 12,000 untaxed cigarettes and 10kg of illicit tobacco in newsagents across Medway in a joint operation with Kent Police, HMRC and Medway Council.
Following consultation, the Government has said the maximum fines for offending retailers should be £10,000 with shorter suspensions, with a new law still out for consultation. A HMRC spokesman said it “will continue to work with Trading Standards, police, local authorities, other government departments, and international law enforcement partners to tackle illicit tobacco.”
Source: Express, 1 August 2021
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Thousands of illegal cigarettes and hand-rolling tobacco have been found hidden in a hole in a wall outside a shop in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent. The concealed hole was sniffed out by a tobacco detection dog.
The hole was discovered as police and trading standards officers searched two stores in the city centre. They found a total of 15,000 illegal cigarettes and 2 kg of illicit hand-rolling tobacco worth £8,500.
Dr Paul Edmondson-Jones, the council’s director of public health, said the sale of illegal tobacco “creates a cheap source of tobacco for children and young people. It also undermines all of the good work being done to stop people smoking.”
The raids in Stoke-on-Trent were part of an ongoing operation by National Trading Standards to tackle illegal tobacco.
Source: BBC, 31 July 2021
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The planned takeover of Vectura by one of the world’s largest tobacco companies “stretches the boundaries of corporate morality,” a US scientific research group has said.
The COPD Foundation has become the latest industry stakeholder to condemn a move by Philip Morris International to buy Vectura, the British respiratory drugs company, for £927 million. It said a company that profits from the sale of tobacco products that cause chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) should not benefit from selling products that treat the disease.
Byron Thomashow, its chief medical officer, said: “We are concerned that this alliance may lead to unintended consequences that harm patients. Patients, providers, payers, and pharmacies will likely face the ethical dilemma as to whether it is appropriate to use treatments that profit Big Tobacco.”
Research with links to the tobacco industry is generally not funded by public organisations, meaning “life-saving research may not be possible if it includes inhaled devices manufactured by Vectura”, the foundation warned. Many respiratory organisations with links to Vectura and the industry, such as the American Thoracic Society, have warned that Vectura activities could be restricted if it is owned by Philip Morris, such as employees prohibited from participating in conferences and publishing in journals.
Philip Morris has said it is seeking to diversify away from combustible tobacco, which generated $21.9 billion of revenues last year, and plans to operate Vectura as an “autonomous business unit that will form the backbone” of its inhaled therapeutic business.
The COPD Foundation said this was “preposterous”, adding: “Philip Morris can cease the distribution of tobacco products without the incentive to profit from the diseases that it causes.”
One former senior Vectura source, speaking confidentially, said: “It looks the board have made an error of judgement on this one [the takeover].”
Source: The Times, 31 July 2021
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