Oral Answers to Questions

Fiona Bruce Excerpts

Tuesday 16th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Steve Brine (Winchester) (Con)]

8. What steps his Department is taking to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer.

[Fiona Bruce (Congleton) (Con)]

12. What steps his Department is taking to raise awareness of the signs and symptoms of cancer.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Anna Soubry)]

It would take me a very long time to give all the details of the Department’s work. In short, we have run a number of specific campaigns, both locally and regionally, to deal with a number of cancers. We will now evaluate whether those pilots have been successful. What I can say is that, such is the success of the lung cancer campaign, we will be recommissioning it in July.

--- Later in debate ---

[Anna Soubry]

I pay tribute to the work of my hon. Friend and all those involved with the all-party group—I am indeed looking forward to this afternoon’s session. I particularly commend the group’s work on targeting women over 70. Again, we have run a pilot campaign on that and are evaluating the results, and if there is value in it, it will be rolled out in order to bring huge benefits.

[Fiona Bruce]

Given the link between smoking and cancer and the fact that 70% of smokers start before they are 18 and 94% before they are 25, what consideration have the Government given to introducing plain packaging in order to drive down the number of young people attracted to smoking in the first place?

[Anna Soubry]

We are considering what has been a huge consultation, but I must correct my hon. Friend—I am in no way criticising her—because it is not plain packaging, but what we call standardised packaging. If, like me, hon. Members were to see the cigarette packets now issued in Australia, they would realise that they are far from plain. Some would say that they are a counterfeiter’s nightmare, not a charter for counterfeiters.