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New data compiled by Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) show that 10,016 households with a smoker are living in poverty in Wiltshire when the cost of smoking is accounted for. The residents of these households include 19,151 adults below pension age, 2,921 adults at pension age, and around 9,061 dependent children. The analysis also found that 2,921 people are economically inactive due to smoking in Wiltshire with smokers earning 6.8% less than non-smokers.
In 2020/21, the percentage of people supported by Wiltshire Council’s Health Improvement Coaches to quit smoking almost doubled from the previous year to 27.49% from 15.73%. Councillor Ian Blair-Pilling, Wiltshire Council Cabinet Member for Public Health, said: “We are here to support anyone who wants to take the first step towards quitting on the road towards better physical and mental health. We know quitting can be a daunting challenge but where there’s a will there’s a way, and our friendly team will be there side by side with you.”
“As the ASH findings show, smoking can have many untold long term negative knock-on effects that people probably don’t think about when first trying it. Smoking is estimated to kill almost 500 people a year in Wiltshire and the impact on families left behind cannot be overstated.”
Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive of ASH, said: “We look forward to the forthcoming Tobacco Control Plan to achieve the Government’s smokefree 2030 ambition. This will play a key role in delivering the 2030 targets to narrow the gap in life expectancy, wellbeing and productivity between the top performing and other areas set out in the Levelling Up White Paper.”
Source: Planet Radio, 10 February 2022
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The Government has said that NHS England must now allow councillors to be members of NHS Integrated Care Boards (ICBs), one of the two governance structures for Integrated Care Systems (ICSs). The decision reverses a previous draft constitution issued by NHSE which listed “a member of a local authority in England and Wales” as among those disqualified from sitting on ICBs.
It remains unclear whether councillors will be allowed to chair ICBs. Job adverts for ICB chair designates, nearly all of whom were appointed last year, had stated: “Elected officials including MPs and members of councils are excluded from the NHS ICB chair role.” Moreover, NHSE’s ICS design framework, issued in summer 2021, said an ICB chair “will often be the chief executive of their organisation or in a relevant executive-level local authority role” rather than a councillor.
However, objections to excluding councillors were raised in the Lords last month, led by Labour peer Philip Hunt. Following this, Lord Kamall, Government health spokesman in the Lords, said last night (10 February) that he had “noted the strength of feeling in the house” and “discussed this matter with NHS England and can confirm that it will revise its draft guidance to remove the proposed blanket exclusion of local authority members sitting on integrated care boards.”
When asked by HSJ, NHSE said that the new changes meant that it would be possible for councillors to sit as local authority partner members on the ICB but could not become chairs or non-executive members. However, councillors can sit on and chair ICS Partnership boards, which will set the strategies which ICBs must follow under the Health and Care Bill.
Source: HSJ, 11 February 2022
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So-called “vaping queen” Chu Lam Yiu is at the centre of corruption and human rights controversy in China after she was detained in off-grid “residential surveillance” after being placed under investigation for “suspected disciplinary violations” centred on her tobacco flavouring company Huabao. Chu founded Huabao, which manufacturers flavours and fragrances for tobacco and other products, in 1996, and the business has amassed almost $8bn (£5.9bn) in profits since then.
Chinese officials first detained Chu in January but have since provided no detail on the suspected violations. Commentators have said the events are part of an expected move to target the tobacco industry in China, with Chu expected to “play a key role in bringing down officials in the tobacco administration” according to Alex Payette, chief executive of the consultancy Cercius Group.
Weeks earlier the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection, China’s government anti-corruption watchdog, also levelled a set of corruption allegations at Pan Jiahua, the party’s former disciplinary inspector at the state tobacco conglomerate, arrested last year having been accused of accepting “huge sums of money” for himself and illegitimate benefits for family members through a network of shadow companies and a “revolving door” of retired senior officials.
One Beijing-based tobacco control veteran, who spoke anonyously, expected more people to be implicated following investigations into Pan and Chu, but said that Beijing would not overhaul one of its biggest tax generators, with the powerful China National Tobacco Corp (CNTC) “the most profitable” of the country’s state-owned enterprises. CNTC has a monopoly over the Chinese tobacco industry and tobacco-linked taxes account for as much as 5% of Government revenue.
Source: Financial Times, 11 February 2022
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British American Tobacco (BAT) has announced a slight increase to its pre-tax profits from £8.6bn to £9.2bn in the year. The increase was partly made up of a rise in its sales of non-combustible products, which rose by 21.9% to £3.2bn, but combustible cigarettes remain by far the company’s biggest sellers, making £22 billion in 2021, though this was down 3.2% on last year (2021).
The reduction in profit made on traditional cigarettes was partly due to falls in volume of sales in Indonesia, the US, Ukraine, Russia, and Japan, however BAT said that countries like Bangladesh, Pakistan, Vietnam, Brazil, and Chile showed signs of recovery since the pandemic eased.
In terms of BAT’s non-combustible products, the company says that around 18.3 million people bought one of BAT’s vapes or non-cigarette products in 2022, up 4.8 million on the previous year, with BAT bosses saying that they remain on track to deliver £5bn of revenue from the non-combustible division by 2025. BAT’s Vuse vape brand is now the leading brand by value share globally, with sales up 59%, while its tobacco heating product, glo, saw its sales go up by 46%.
Source: Independent, 11 February 2022
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This joint ASH/NCSCT webinar briefs local authorities on elements of the revised NICE guidance (Tobacco: preventing uptake, promoting quitting and treating dependence [NG209]) relating to the recommended model for supporting smokers to stop, and links them to some practical tools to support implementation.
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This new tool allows you to view a breakdown on the economic and health inequalities caused by smoking at local level. It covers the number of households with a smoker who are in poverty once smoking is taken into account, social care costs due to smoking, and unemployment and loss of earnings due to smoking, amongst other things.
The breakdown shows that across England 31% of smoking households live in poverty once spend on smoking is taken into account. This rate is highest in the North East (42%) and lowest in London (17%), however this still equates to over 80,000 smoking households falling below the poverty line in the capital alone as a result of income lost to smoking expenditure. The findings also showed that the average smoker spends just under £2,000 a year on tobacco and that 252,138 people are economically inactive due to smoking.
See also: ASH Press Release - A third of smoking households in England are living in poverty with rates highest in the North
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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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