Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent assessment he has made of the potential merits of overturning the ban on oral tobacco products such as snus.
We have no plans to make such an assessment as the Department has no intention to legalise banned tobacco products. Snus use is associated with raised all-cause mortality. Whilst the risks of adverse health outcomes caused by snus are lower than smoking, we have found no evidence that introducing snus to the United Kingdom market will bring health benefits given the existing availability of non-tobacco nicotine pouches. It remains the Government’s policy to help people to quit all forms of tobacco use.