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Pregnant women quit smoking in favour of £400 high street vouchers
In a new national Scottish study the addition of a Love2Shop voucher incentive scheme alongside regular UK Stop Smoking Services was shown to more than double the number of women who stopped smoking during pregnancy.
The randomised trial examined the effectiveness of adding a financial incentive of up to £400 of high street vouchers to existing prenatal care, in order to help pregnant women stop smoking. Almost 1,000 pregnant smokers were recruited to the trial, with half receiving standard Stop Smoking Services care and the other half the same prenatal care, but with additional vouchers.
Researchers found that 26.8% of women from the group which included the addition of the voucher incentive had quit smoking by the end of their pregnancy – in comparison, only 12.3% of women from the control group managed to quit.
Professor Linda Bauld, from the University of Edinburgh, said: “Our study shows just how effective high street vouchers are as a quitting aid when added to stop smoking service support. Most women who smoke in pregnancy in the UK are from lower income groups, who will be most affected by the cost of living crisis, and these vouchers will have helped them both make a quit attempt and stay smokefree through pregnancy. This kind of intervention is about prevention, spending up front to avoid much more serious and costly health problems for the baby and the mum if she continues to smoke.”
Maternal smoking is responsible for “significant” illness and deaths among women and their babies, including 7% of childhood hospital admissions for respiratory infection, 20% of infant deaths and 30% of babies born underweight.
Source: STV News, 20 October 2022
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Liz Truss’s chief of staff still owns 10% of Lynton Crosby’s lobbying firm
Liz Truss’s chief of staff still owns a stake in Sir Lynton Crosby’s lobbying company despite his Downing Street role, meaning he could benefit financially from the firm’s work for corporate clients.
Mark Fullbrook, who is in charge of the prime minister’s political operation, co-founded the British arm of the lobbying business CT Group with Crosby. Its clients have included the tobacco company Philip Morris, the Saudi Arabian government, and the mining firm Glencore.
Fullbrook left CT Group earlier this year but continues to own 10% of its shares, a potential conflict of interest which has not been publicly disclosed since he joined Downing Street. His stake in the lobbying company could be worth millions of pounds in the event of a sale, while he would be entitled to a share of any dividends paid by the business as a result of its work for corporate clients.
Source: The Guardian, 19 October 2022
See also: Tobacco Tactics – Crosby Textor Group
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Broken funding systems for public services “preserve geographic inequalities”
Broken funding systems for public services that are not set up to tackle geographic inequalities are putting the “levelling up” agenda at risk, the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) has warned. According to the IFS, reforming these systems to boost funding for poorer areas appears unlikely over the coming years as the Government cuts public spending to balance the books.
According to the report, public health funding allocation bears little relation to estimates of spending needs, with some deprived councils receiving up to one third less than they were predicted to need. Every council has seen the same percentage change in funding each year since 2015, despite differences in population growth, and there is no plan to address these gaps. Due to problems with local government funding, the poorest 10th of councils’ share of spending on adults’ and children’s social care is around 15% and 10% below their share of needs, the report also said.
IFS associate director David Phillips said: “Tackling persistent geographic inequalities in health, wealth and life chances across the country will require more than changes to public spending. But how spending is allocated between places does clearly matter, especially for those typically more disadvantaged people most reliant on public services. Current funding systems for the main services outside the NHS are not set up to tackle inequalities. School funding has been becoming less targeted at the most deprived pupils and is still overly concentrated in London. Council, police and public health funding bear less and less relation to estimates of spending needs each year, with no way to account for how changes in local circumstances can affect spending needs. Addressing these issues would be a vital part of a truly ambitious ‘Levelling Up’ agenda – but reform has been seemingly kicked into the long grass”.
Source: The Independent, 20 October 2022
See also: IFS - Does funding follow need? An analysis of the geographic distribution of public spending in England
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Philip Morris increases offer for Swedish Match
Philip Morris International has increased its offer for smokeless tobacco specialist Swedish Match, pushing the price it is prepared to pay up by just under 10% as it seeks to expand in cigarette alternatives.
The increased offer comes after hedge funds built a stake in Swedish Match. US group Elliott Management has built a 7.25% stake in the Swedish company, according to Bloomberg data.
PMI offered SKr106 per share for Swedish Match in May, but on Thursday increased that to SKr116 per share, valuing the target’s equity at about SKr176bn ($15.7bn).
Separately, PMI agreed on Wednesday to pay tobacco group Altria about $2.7bn for the US commercialisation rights for IQOS, a line of e-cigarettes.
Source: Financial Times, 20 October 2022
See also: Tobacco Tactics – Philip Morris International | Tobacco Tactics – Swedish Match
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