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Two ministers at the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities have been given responsibilities for levelling up after being allocated portfolios following September’s cabinet reshuffle. Kemi Badenoch MP has been confirmed as minister of state with responsibilities for levelling up and communities, while Neil O’Brien MP is minister for levelling up, the union and constitution.
Badenoch’s portfolio includes responsibility for elections policy, local government policy and finance in England. She is also minister for equalities at the Government Equalities Department. O’Brien will lead on the UK shared prosperity fund, the levelling up white paper, the delivery of freeports and oversight of funds in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, county deals, mayoral combined authorities and pan-regional growth bodies, as well as high streets, towns, commercial property, and community assets in England. He was previously the prime minister's advisor on levelling up.
Source: Local Government Chronicle, 21 October 2021
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34-year-old Clare Davison from Stockton-on-Tees smoked since she was 11-years-old, eventually working her way up to 80 to 100 cigarettes a day. When she became pregnant in April 2021, she was referred to the specialist stop smoking service for Stockton, based at the University Hospital of North Tees, by the hospital’s maternity team. Clare had a discussion with a stop smoking advisor at the hospital to talk her through the different methods of quitting. She was given a nicotine inhalator, carbon monoxide checks and free regular support to help her cut down and has now successfully quit altogether.
Clare said “I wouldn’t have done it without the service – it was so helpful. I’d like to thank them for that. If you want it, you really can do it. I was smoking over a hundred a day some days – I never thought I would cut down, let alone fully quit.”
Sue Swinson, service lead for the stop smoking service, said “Clare has done amazingly well in what she has achieved. Stopping smoking is one of the most important things anyone can do to improve their baby’s health, growth and development. It is also the single most important things you can do to improve your own long-term health.”
Source: The Northern Echo, 21 October 2021
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Litter campaigner Jason Alexander, the Ipswich based founder of Rubbish Walks, has cleaned his millionth cigarette butt.
Mr Alexander said the idea of collecting a million butts began more than three years ago: "I did a beach clean marathon along the coast from Lowestoft and Felixstowe and picked up lots of litter of all kinds. I saw that cigarette ends were everywhere I went, and decided to do something to highlight the issue." The resulting Blitz the Butt campaign began in August 2018, and Mr Alexander has kept going ever since, using his daily exercise to litter pick near home during COVID-19 lockdowns.
"I picked up the millionth butt somewhere in Ipswich town centre," he said, adding he was keen to meet the milestone ahead of the forthcoming UN Climate Change Conference. He said cigarette butts are the "most common form of litter on the planet", with trillions dropped every year.
Source: Ipswich Star, 20 October 2021
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Corné van Walbeek, Director of the Research Unit on the Economics of Excisable Products (REEP) at the University of Cape Town, and Zunda Chisha, research officer with the Research Unit on the Economics of Excisable Products (REEP), write in The Conversation on developments and interference with tobacco control efforts across Africa.
Chisha and van Walbeek note many positive developments in tobacco control across the continent, with 51 of the 54 countries constituting Africa having ratified the WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC), 13 countries having banned smoking in public places, 16 countries requiring graphic health warnings on tobacco packaging and 27 countries having ratified the Protocol to Eliminate Illicit Trade in Tobacco Products, the highest proportion of any continent. However, many challenges remain. One being the slow adoption of recommended tobacco taxation policies: "Most African countries have excise tax systems that are generally regarded as sub-optimal. [...] It is thus unsurprising that cigarettes are relatively cheap in most African countries. In fact, the excise tax, expressed as a percentage of the average retail price, is lower in Africa than on any other continent in the world."
The authors say that in some countries, tax systems have regressed. For example, "Between 1994 and 2009, South Africa’s tobacco control efforts, anchored by sharp increases in the excise tax, were praised globally. [...] Since 2010, there has been a rapid increase in illicit trade, even though excise tax increases in the past decade have been negligible. Since 2015, illicit trade in South Africa has increased substantially, and now accounts for at least 35% of the total market. The primary reason for this increase is the decline in the South African Revenue Service’s capacity to ensure tax compliance among tobacco manufacturers. The tobacco industry has been at the forefront of undermining the revenue authority. Efforts to implement a track and trace system have been unsuccessful."
Chisha and van Walbeek add that "The ethical practices of the tobacco industry have been called into question for decades. Recently, the BBC’s programme Panorama presented a documentary on the tobacco industry. The documentary was the culmination of years of research conducted by investigative journalists and researchers at the University of Bath. It details the ways in which British American Tobacco (BAT) acted unethically in various African countries to maintain its high profits, to block or weaken tobacco control legislation, and to maintain its market dominance. This is not the first time British American Tobacco has been accused of these practices and, sadly, it is unlikely to be the last."
Source: The Conversation, 20 October 2021
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