Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the findings of the 2006 study by McNeill and West in the British Medical Journal that South Asian chewed tobacco is a major cause of oral cancer, what assessment his Department has made of the safety of chewing tobacco; and whether his Department has plans to set product standards.

Although no official assessment of the safety of chewing tobacco has been made, traditional smokeless tobacco products are harmful to health by causing oral, oesophageal and pancreatic cancers. It remains the Government’s policy to help people to quit all forms of tobacco use through behavioural support from stop smoking services, nicotine replacement therapy or e-cigarettes.

There are no plans to set a product standard on chewing tobacco. Product standards for tobacco are contained in the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016.