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** 21 April 2022
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** UK
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** Whitehall’s consultations black hole (#1)
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** International
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** Imperial Brands sells Russian business to investors (#2)
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** Ireland: Findings on smoking and heart attack spur call for better plan (#3)
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Oral Questions - Smokefree 2030 Target (#5)
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** UK
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** Whitehall’s consultations black hole
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** Research by the Local Government Chronicle (LGC) reveals ministers have failed to respond to more than 40 consultations which impact on local government’s work, leading to concern that councils are being hindered by limited central capacity.

Out of 69 consultations which opened from January 2019 onwards which are listed on the gov.uk website and closed four or more months ago, 47 are outstanding while just 22 – fewer than a third – have been responded to. The vast majority of these were led by the Department for Levelling up, Housing & Communities (DLUHC).

This possibly demonstrates the impact on delays to government business resulting from the pandemic, whilst the government’s workload in tackling the Ukrainian refugee crisis potentially means the backlog will not ease any time soon. But some analysts also see the delays as a sign of a government dragging its heels on issues it finds too politically sensitive or complex to deal with.

The unfinished consultations include one that dates to when the Conservative/ Liberal Democrat coalition was in power, when DLUHC was known as the Department for Communities & Local Government. The review of the local authority role in housing supply, which sought ideas on how councils could help to increase housing supply to meet local need, ran from March to May 2014.

Source: LGC, 20 April 2022
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** International
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** Imperial Brands sells Russian business to investors
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**
Tobacco giant Imperial Brands is selling off its Russian business to investors in the country, it has confirmed.

The maker of Davidoff, West and Gauloises Blondes cigarettes said the registration of the transaction still needed to be finalised with local authorities but it expected the transfer to take place “shortly”.

The Bristol-headquartered company employs 1,000 people in Russia in its sales and marketing operations and in its factory in Volgograd. The business said it estimated a non-cash write off of around £225m for the transaction, which it expects to be treated as an adjusting item.

Imperial Brands said there was no change to the company’s previous guidance on the financial impact of its exit from Russia and suspension of Ukraine operations. In the financial year 2021, Russia and Ukraine represented in total around 2% of net revenues and 0.5% of adjusted operating profit.

Source: Business Live, 21 April 2022
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** Ireland: Findings on smoking and heart attack spur call for better plan
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**
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** The Irish Heart Foundation is urging the Department of Health in Ireland to develop a fresh cardiovascular strategy following research that reveals increased risk of heart attack faced by smokers.

This comes in response to an audit of heart attacks in Ireland between 2017 and 2020, which found current smokers were affected at a much younger ages than non-smokers.

Examining data from some 5,600 heart-attack patients, the National Office of Clinical Audit (Noca) detected male smokers were, on average, aged 56 at the time of their major heart attack (known as ST elevation myocardial infarction or Stemi), whilst the median age of non-smoking Stemi patients was 65.

There was a 16-year difference between the median age of female smokers who suffered a heart attack (60) and non-smoking women, who had a median age of 76.

Just over a third of all Stemi patients during the period were current smokers, compared to 17% of the general population.

The Irish Heart Foundation’s medical director, Dr Angie Brown, said the current national cardiovascular health plan is out of date and requires review.

It is “critical”, said Dr Brown, that a new policy increases the focus on prevention and early diagnosis.

A quarter of patients who had survived a previous heart attack continued to smoke, according to the Noca research. Dr Brown said the audit’s findings demonstrate a need for a “comprehensive and focused campaign” surrounding heart attack symptoms and risk factors such as smoking.

Source: The Irish Times, 20 April 2022
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Oral Questions - Smokefree 2030 Target
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** Sir Charles Walker, Conservative, Broxbourne:
What steps his Department is taking to meet its target of England being smoke-free by 2030.

Sajid Javid, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care:
I know that my hon. Friend has long been a passionate advocate for a smoke-free England, and I read his recent Westminster Hall debate with interest. Some 64,000 deaths a year are attributed to smoking and it is one of the greatest drivers of health disparities in our country. I am personally determined that we should do everything we can to reach the Government’s ambition of a smoke-free 2030. That is why, in January, I asked Javed Khan to lead an independent review into tobacco control. Once that review is complete, the Government will set out their next steps.

Sir Charles Walker:
To get to a smoke-free 2030, for every 100 people smoking today we need to reduce that figure by eight, because “smoke-free” actually means 5% or less of the adult population smoking. Can I ask the Secretary of State to ruthlessly target the barriers that stop people stubbing out their last cigarette? We need to get the numbers of smokers down; otherwise, 2030 will be an ambition that is not achieved.

Sajid Javid:
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The smoking rate is currently 13.5%, which is the lowest on record. However, smoking remains the largest driver of health disparities in our country. The new tobacco control plan, which will be informed by the new independent review, will be looking to do exactly what my hon. Friend says.

Mr Barry Sheerman, Labour (Co-op), Huddersfield:
As one of the original campaigners for a ban on smoking in public places, I fully support what has just been suggested, but can I go further and beg the Secretary of State to come up very soon with a plan so that every child, every person and every family in this country can breathe clean, fresh air away from the pollution coming from diesel vehicles and other sources?

Sajid Javid:
The hon. Gentleman has long been a campaigner on this issue and I commend him for that. He is right to continue pushing. I do not want to pre-empt the outcome of the independent review because it is just that, a review fully independent of Government. However, once it is complete—I hope to publish it in May—we can set out our plans.
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**
Source: Hansard, 19 April 2022
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