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** 31 March 2022
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** UK
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** Afriyie: Our scatter-gun approach to being smokefree by 2030 is failing (#1)
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** Baby deaths inquiry points to issues across England's maternity services (#2)
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** O'Brien: Government must 'floor it' on public health prevention (#3)
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** International
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** Houston City Council approves ordinance to ban e-cigarette use in certain public spaces (#4)
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Parliamentary Debate: Health and Care Bill: Tobacco amendments (#5)
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** UK
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MP Adam Afriyie argues that England will not achieve a smokefree 2030 because the Government has taken a “scatter-gun approach” which is “failing” to achieve the target.

Afriyie argues that a fresh approach is needed, suggesting a more precise focus on getting existing smokers to switch to less harmful alternatives. He recommends a “multi-category approach” with smokers encouraged to switch to a range of alternatives including vapes, nicotine pouches, and heat-not-burn products, regulated and taxed differently from tobacco cigarettes. Afriyie also argues that we need to communicate better on vaping to combat pervasive misinformation.

In doing this, Afriyie concludes that the Government can go some way to achieving its levelling up target for life expectancy, encouraging people to give up the greatest cause of preventable illness and premature death in the UK and putting England back on track for a smokefree 2030.
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Source: Politics Home, 30 March 2022
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** Editorial note: Adam Afriyie is an officer of the APPG on vaping which has links to the UK Vaping Industry Association whose members include tobacco companies. For more information see here ([link removed]) .
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** Donna Ockenden’s report into one of the largest maternity scandals in the history of the NHS has found that a lack of staff, a lack of training, and a lack of oversight or sufficient concern from trust leaders were amongst a host of issues which helped to cause the death of 201 babies and nine mothers at Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust between 2000 and 2019.

One of the mothers spoken to by the report team said that she was blamed for the death of her baby and falsely told she was smoking. "I got told it was my fault and that I must have been smoking which wasn't true. It was disgusting how we were treated; basically blamed for our own daughter's death," says Steph Hotchkiss, whose daughter Sophiya died at the Trust in 2014.

The Ockenden report identified a spate of poor practices in the Shrewsbury and Telford trust that contributed to the deaths. It raised 15 areas for “immediate and essential action” to improve care and safety in maternity services across England, including improving staffing levels. It says that maternity and neonatal services in England require a multi-year settlement from NHS England “to ensure the workforce is enable to deliver consistently safe” care. Health leaders say the current shortage of more than 2,000 midwives means women and babies are still at risk of unsafe care.

The report also recommends the NHS demonstrate an ability to admit mistakes and to learn from them, to promote a culture of openness, and to improve accountability and support for families. Other hospitals across England are also under question for poor maternity care, with Morecambe Bay, East Kent, and Nottingham hospitals having poor maternity care exposed in recent years.
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** Source: Sky News, 30 March 2022
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See also:
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** The Guardian - Baby deaths inquiry points to issues across England’s maternity services ([link removed])
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** Department of Health and Social Care - Final report of the Ockenden review ([link removed])
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** The Government’s levelling up advisor Neil O’Brien says the Government needs to “really floor it” when it comes to public health prevention measures otherwise the NHS will be “under humongous pressure for the rest of our lifetimes”. O’Brien also said that the delayed tobacco control plan for England will feature in the white paper on health disparities due to be published later this year.

Speaking at an Institute for Government event on Tuesday 29 March, O’Brien said that the Government has to “think extremely radically” and be “very imaginative and aggressive” on public health and prevention to combat pressure on the NHS due to an ageing population. O’Brien also talked about devolution discussions and said they had been initiated with “a very large number of places” with “a lot of places” going for “ambitious devolution agreements” and “new structures”.

O’Brien also explained how the levelling up taskforce, which had worked out of the Cabinet Office and Number 10 and was then “upgraded” to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing, and Communities when Michael Gove became levelling up secretary, had now been “folded fully into the department”.

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** Source: LGC, 30 March 2022
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** International
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** Houston City Council has passed an ordinance banning the use of e-cigarettes in public places. The use of vapes will now be banned wherever smoking is currently banned, meaning all enclosed public places of workplaces, within 25 feet of a building entrance or exit doors, outdoor arenas and outdoor seating areas of public spectator events, and covered bus stops and light rail stops.

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** Source: Click 2 Houston, 30 March 2022
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Yesterday (30 March 2022) MPs in the Commons debated and voted on amendments 85 to 88 to the Health and Care Bill which require the Government to consult, within a specific period of time, on introducing a “polluter pays” levy on the profits of the tobacco industry to help pay for the cost of tobacco control. The Government voted against the amendment, meaning it will now return to the Lords for consideration.

Bob Blackman MP, Chair of the APPG on Smoking and Health, spoke in favour of the amendment, alongside Conservative Steve Brine MP, a former Health Secretary, Labour MPs Dr Rosenna Allin-Khan MP and Alex Cunningham MP, and Martyn Day MP of the SNP. Responding for the Government, Edward Argar MP said the proposals would be too complex to implement, take several years to materialize, and risk directing a lot of Government resource into what the Government does not see as a sustainable or workable way to fund public health. He said that the levy was a matter for the Treasury. Finally, he encouraged colleagues to wait for the recommendations included in Javed Khan’s Independent Review and to be led by them.
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** Source: Hansard, 30 March 2022
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