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** 13 December 2021
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** UK
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** "I started smoking at 11 before developing throat cancer three times" (#1)
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** Number of people vaping in the UK rises to highest-ever level (#2)
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** Opinion: I'm all for New Zealand taking on tobacco, but don't criminalise smokers (#4)
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** Exclusive: Anger over white paper leaks purporting mass reorganisation (#5)
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** International
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** Opinion: New Zealand is banning tobacco. Will anyone follow? (#3)
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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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** Former smoker and cancer survivor Sue Mountain explains her support for New Zealand’s new plans to ban smoking in 2023 for anyone born after 1998 in light of her own experiences.

Mountain says that such a ban would have stopped her starting. She started smoking in primary school as a way to fit in. She did not fully consider the risks until her father got Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) and, in around 2010, she began to notice her own persistently dry throat and loss of voice. In 2012 Mountain was diagnosed with early-stage laryngeal cancer.

She gave up smoking and was given the all-clear but restarted about three months later due to stress. She hid her smoking from her daughters and could not stop when they found out. In 2015 her cancer returned but when she got the all-clear again she did not stop smoking. She says: “It had taken control of me; it was the first thing I thought about when I woke up and […] I didn’t see the point in stopping. […] I always felt guilty and there was always this fear of failure.”

It was only when a friend told her that she might not be around for her daughters or grandchildren that she quit. She remains upset about what her children went through. Whether New Zealand’s plan is right or not, Mountain says that it is good that New Zealand is taking decisive action. She argues that the UK Government should look at what more it can do, at the very least by consulting on raising the age of sale for tobacco to 21. She concludes with a message for smokers: “Don’t wait until you […] can’t walk up the stairs anymore or get told you have cancer. Get help.”
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** Source: Metro, 13 December 2021
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Read Article ([link removed])


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** New data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) has found that the number of people vaping in the UK has risen to its highest-ever level. According to ONS report Smoking prevalence in the UK and the impact of data collection changes: 2020, 6.4% of the UK population use e-cigarettes.
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**
Source: Convenience Store, 10 December 2021

See also: Office for National Statistics - Smoking prevalence in the UK and the impact of data collection changes: 2020 ([link removed])
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Read Article ([link removed])


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** I newspaper columnist Eleanor Margolis, who writes on lifestyle and social issues, argues in The Guardian that New Zealand’s new policy banning tobacco sales from 2023 to all those born after 2008 must not criminalise smokers and must acknowledge the fact that smoking is an addiction.

Margolis argues that before banning products that people use to self-medicate, it is necessary to implement the major life-improving social and economic change that make that self-medication less necessary. She notes that even in New Zealand, where there is a decent welfare state, rates of poverty, especially among people of colour, are rising. There has been a 10% increase in child poverty since the COVID-19 pandemic began. Thus she says that the success of any smoking ban depends upon creating a society where people no longer feel compelled to smoke and will therefore not search out other sources for tobacco, namely through illicit trade.

Margolis notes that there is evidence to suggest that tobacco, and other harmful products, are already slowly dying out of their own accord. Makers of sweets and fizzy drinks are already selling lower sugar versions of their products – Cadbury’s “30% less sugar” Dairy Milk and the reduced-sugar Irn Bru – and a survey by GlobalData this year found that 38% of people globally have never smoked with this figure rising to 68% for ‘Generation Z’. So Margolis says that whether we implement a ban or not, we must continue to focus on the other measures which are successfully reducing the appeal of tobacco, such as public health campaigns and graphic health warnings.
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Source: The Guardian, 11 December 2021
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** The Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities (DLUHC) has responded to reports in The Independent that a draft levelling up white paper includes plans to “radically alter” local government by introducing a “single tier mayoral style system” by saying that there are "no plans" for top-down local government restructuring as part of its aim to "empower local leaders".

The reported draft paper had been met with scepticism by senior figures in local government, with some speculating that the leak was deliberately made to spark controversy to wipe reorganisation off the agenda. The leak caught local government sources off guard, as the Government is still pursuing a strategy of only rolling out reorganisation in areas where there is believed to be local support for it, and now a DLUHC source has told LGC that there are no plans to change policy.

Since county deals negotiations began, LGC understands no new conversations between local leaders and officials have occurred around reorganisation forming part of the deals. However, one source who has been closely involved in the county deals negotiations did admit to the LGC that there is “no doubt Gove would like to roll out reorganisation if he could". The report is understood to have prompted anger among district council leaders lined up to be involved in county deals.

One senior political source said “This will send everyone who had been interested in signing a county deal running for the hills.” Local Government Association chair James Jamieson similarly told LGC: “We have been constant at the LGA in saying that devolution should be locally led. Any structures needed to deliver devolution should be bottom up.”

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** Source: LGC, 10 December 2021
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Read Article ([link removed])


** International
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**
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**
Bloomberg Opinion Columnist David Fickling argues that whilst New Zealand’s new policy banning tobacco sales from 2023 to all those born after 2008 has many flaws, it will ultimately be useful as a litmus test for showing the rest of the world whether such a policy can succeed.

Fickling points out that previous major tobacco control measures like the ban on indoor smoking and introduction of plain packaging were justified on the grounds that they enhanced the welfare of all individuals, protecting bystanders and reducing the marketing power of tobacco companies. He says that New Zealand’s new ban cannot easily appeal to this point and instead involves a different kind of justification, focused on the freedom to choose an activity that is harmful.

Fickling notes that whilst liberal societies have a duty to protect the sovereignty of their citizens over their bodies, addictive products like tobacco already violate that sovereignty. He also notes that current tobacco control policies are not reducing numbers of smokers quickly enough to reach Governments’ smokefree targets, including the UK’s 2030 target and New Zealand’s 2025 target. Smoking-related inequalities persist, including in New Zealand where smoking is far more common amongst Māori and Pacifica people than amongst the general population.

He concludes that bold action is therefore required, and in this light the New Zealand policy will be worthwhile in allowing the rest of the world to see whether such a policy could work.

Editorial note: Bloomberg is affiliated with Bloomberg Philanthropies, a foundation run by Bloomberg owner Michael Bloomberg, that has invested £830.5m in fighting tobacco use globally.

Source: Bloomberg, 13 December 2021
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** Parliamentary Activity
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**
PQ1: Tobacco - Internet

Asked by Thangam Debbonaire, Bristol West

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** To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps the Government is taking to prevent online sales of products containing nicotine to under-18s.

Answered by Maggie Throup, Public Health Minister
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**
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** The Children and Young Persons (Sale of Tobacco etc.) Order 2007 and The Nicotine Inhaling Products (Age of Sale and Proxy Purchasing) Regulations 2015 ensure that tobacco and nicotine inhaling products can only be purchased by those who are aged 18 years old and over. This applies to both in person and online sales. The Department will consider whether the regulatory framework needs to be strengthened to protect young people from accessing products containing nicotine online.
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** Source: Hansard ([link removed]) , 13 December

PQ2: Health Services

Asked by Rachel Maskell, York Central

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** To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to help ensure that NHS health checks are reinstated to enable health interventions such smoking cessation to be delivered.
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** Answered by Maggie Throup, Public Health Minister
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**
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** The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities continues to support local authorities to recover activity on the NHS Health Check programme, where this was paused because of the pandemic. This includes publishing guidance to assist with restart planning and preparation, which is available at the following link:
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**
www.healthcheck.nhs.uk/commissioners-and-providers/national-guidance/ ([link removed])
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**
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** The NHS Health Check is an important gateway to helping people access interventions such as support to stop smoking. These services have continued to operate during the pandemic response as individuals are able to refer themselves directly.
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**
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** Source: Hansard ([link removed]) , 13 December
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