Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020

Lord Rennard Excerpts

Monday 2nd November 2020 Grand Committee

[Lord Rennard (LD)]

My Lords, I declare an interest as a vice-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health. As an officer of that group, I was pleased to welcome the ambition set out in the Government’s prevention Green Paper last year, which sets out the aim for England to be smoke free by 2030.

The APPG has since endorsed the Roadmap to a Smokefree 2030, produced by Action on Smoking and Health and which was also endorsed by over 70 leading health organisations, including the Royal College of Physicians, the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK. It sets out the actions needed to fulfil the Government’s ambition. The recommendations in the road map include measures that build on the regulations we are discussing today, including policies such as raising the age of sale for tobacco products and introducing what are called dissuasive cigarettes. The post-implementation review of the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations, which this instrument amends, provides an opportunity to take forward these policies.

Currently, 280 children take up smoking every day in England. This means that since the Government announced their ambition to be smoke-free by 2030, over 130,000 children have started smoking, risking a lifetime of addiction and premature death. Nearly 80% of smokers aged 16 to 24 say that they took up smoking before the age of 18. Raising the age of sale from 16 to 18 was associated with reductions in youth smoking, with a similar impact across different socioeconomic groups. Raising the age of sale further from 18 to 21 is a popular measure, with 62% of British adults reporting that they would support that move.

Similar evidence shows that dissuasive cigarettes, which have health warnings printed on the cigarette itself, could be effective. There is evidence that, to some extent, smokers become immune to the existing warnings on packets, and so new techniques are needed to gain their attention. Dissuasive cigarettes are under consideration in Canada, Australia and Scotland, and would provide a simple and effective means of reinforcing health messages such as “Smoking causes cancer”.

These actions are needed now more than ever. The coronavirus pandemic has exposed the impact of health inequalities on our society, with people in the most deprived communities twice as likely to die as a result of it. It is not a coincidence that these are also the communities worst affected by smoking. In Liverpool, where I grew up, 23% of people in routine and manual jobs still smoke. My mother was a nurse, but her life was undoubtedly shortened by smoking. It is clear that the poorest communities bear the brunt of smoking-related diseases, such as heart and lung disease, diabetes and hypertension, which worsen the impacts of coronavirus.

The Government’s manifesto last December committed to levelling up, to delivering five extra healthy life years by 2035 while narrowing inequalities. Reducing smoking is key to delivering those ambitions. However, we are still awaiting the Government’s response to the prevention Green Paper consultation and the promised further proposals to move us towards a smoke-free 2030 in England. Action is needed now, or our poorest communities will continue to be left behind and bear the brunt of smoking-related disease.

We are still awaiting the Government’s response to the prevention Green Paper consultation. I hope the Minister may also tell us what has happened to the Government’s response to the consultation on the Nicotine Inhaling Products (Age of Sale and Proxy Purchasing) Regulations 2015, covering England and Wales. That consultation closed in September last year and is referred to in these regulations. A response to that consultation was due last September but, almost a year on, there has been no word from the Government about when it will be published. We are waiting for the Government’s response to two consultations and for the launch of another, which needs to report before the end of the financial year. All three consultations are related to the regulations being amended by the statutory instrument before us, so can the Minister confirm when the Government will deliver on all three?