Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether her Department has made an assessment of the environmental impact of introducing paper inserts with quit information messages into (a) tobacco pouches and (b) cigarette boxes.

Smoking is the number one entirely preventable cause of ill-health, disability and death in this country. It is responsible for 80,000 yearly deaths in the United Kingdom and one in four of all UK cancer deaths. It costs our country £17 billion a year, £14 billion of which is through lost productivity alone. It puts huge pressure on the National Health Service and social care, costing over £3 billion a year.

Research suggests tobacco pack inserts can increase the likelihood of smokers making a quit attempt, by providing motivational messages and information on the benefits of quitting, in addition to the graphic health warnings already on tobacco products.

A UK wide consultation, Mandating quit information messages inside tobacco packs, was open for eight weeks from August 2023 to October 2023. As part of the consultation, respondents were asked to provide information on any environmental concerns about the use of inserts, and how these could be mitigated. We are considering feedback to the consultation and a consultation response will be published in due course.