Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the policy paper entitled Stopping the start: our new plan to create a smokefree generation, last updated on 8 November 2023, reflects his Department's current policy.

The landmark Tobacco and Vapes Bill was introduced into Parliament on 5 November, and will be the single biggest public health intervention since the banning of smoking in indoor public spaces.

This bill goes further than ever before. It will create the first smoke-free generation, gradually phasing out the sale of tobacco products across the country, enable the Government to strengthen the existing ban on smoking in public places to reduce the harms of passive smoking in certain outdoor settings, ban vapes and nicotine products from being promoted and advertised to children, and introduce tougher enforcement measures, including through providing powers to introduce a retail licensing scheme for tobacco and vapes.

This bill will help deliver our ambition for a smoke-free United Kingdom, and forms part of our Health Mission to shift the health system from treatment to prevention.