Asked by: Tracy Gilbert (Labour - Edinburgh North and Leith)
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what discussions he has had with the Scottish Government on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill.
Answered by Andrew Gwynne - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Department of Health and Social Care)
My Rt hon. Friend, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has been discussing the new United Kingdom-wide Tobacco and Vapes Bill with Neil Gray, the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care for Scotland, and will send formal correspondence prior to its introduction. As the bill covers the whole of the UK, the Department will stay in close contact with all our devolved government counterparts, throughout the passage of the bill.
Department officials have engaged frequently with officials from Public Health Scotland, and the rest of the devolved governments, to help shape and develop proposals for new legislation. Each of the devolved governments, including the Scottish Government, are in support of a new and strengthened bill, and the benefits it will provide to the health of our nations. Once the bill has been introduced to the UK Parliament, the devolved governments will seek consent motions from their respective legislatures, including the Scottish Parliament.