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MPs call on the government to reinstate No Smoking Day funding
MPs, charities and health organisations are coming together today on No Smoking Day to call for action on tobacco harm. It comes alongside a warning to smokers that their chances of developing dementia are greater because they smoke.
A YouGov survey of smokers showed that fewer than one in five understand this risk, raising questions about the investment in government health campaigns in recent years.
Tomorrow, 9 March, MPs will debate the importance of campaigns such as national No Smoking Day and call on the government to explain why it has cut funding for tobacco control, with the worst cuts hitting public health campaigns.
Government funding for No Smoking Day has been cut completely, and total funding for anti-smoking campaigns has been cut by over 95% in real terms in the past 12 years, from £23.3 million in 2008/9 to around £1.32 million in 2020/21 (the last full year data has been made available). This is despite a commitment from the government in 2019 to make England smokefree by 2030.
Hazel Cheeseman, deputy chief executive of ASH, said, “Today is an important day for smokers to make the first step on their journey to being an ex-smoker. But a one-off awareness day run by charities is not going to make this country smokefree by 2030. There are still six million smokers in this country. These are people at risk of premature death and disease if the government does not act. It is past time that the government publish a properly funded Tobacco Control Plan.”
Source: The Dentist , 8 March 2023
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Scotland: Poorer households spend almost 30% of their income on tobacco, says charity
Analysis from ASH Scotland suggests that the country’s lowest income group will spend 29.4% of their income on tobacco products in 2023 – about nine times more than the 3.35% estimated to be spent by similar households in the highest income group.
Research commissioned by the charity to mark No Smoking Day today also estimates households in the country’s lowest income group containing two or more people who smoke will spend more than £6,000 on tobacco in 2023, accounting for 73.5% of income.
ASH Scotland has highlighted that smokers could save £3,308 within a year of giving up, as well as bringing health benefits, such as decreasing the risk of coronary heart disease and lung cancer after one year and 10 years respectively.
Sheila Duffy, chief executive of ASH Scotland, said: “Tobacco is a major cause of inequalities, and the projected figures for 2023 we are releasing today spotlight the increasing need for NHS Quit Your Way services in Scotland to be better resourced and promoted to support people to leave tobacco behind, especially in communities facing the greatest challenges.”
Source: Daily Record, 8 March 2023
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Treasury tries to curb NHS plans for more doctors and nurses
The Treasury is pressing the NHS to water down plans to increase the numbers of doctors and nurses.
Senior officials are understood to have suggested removing all numbers from a blueprint for training doctors and nurses over the next decade.
While Jeremy Hunt, the chancellor, is unlikely to accept this, Treasury officials are pushing NHS chiefs to include lower estimates of the need for doctors and nurses for fear that the present shortages will commit the taxpayer to higher spending for a decade.
NHS bosses are preparing to resist the call and believe that publishing the plan offers a rare opportunity to put public pressure on the chancellor for a bigger training budget. Senior doctors said it would be “deeply concerning” to backtrack on the plans.
The National Audit Office is understood to be ready to offer an independent assessment of the plans, which could help the NHS to bolster its case for more detailed figures.
Source: The Times, 7 March 2023
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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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