Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on levels of smoking of an increase in the take-up of vaping.
Smoking rates have fallen steeply in recent years at the same time as e-cigarette use has increased. Adult smoking prevalence in England is 14.9%, the lowest rate on record, whilst around 2.5 million people in England use e-cigarettes, the majority of whom no longer smoke. Whilst the link between uptake of vaping and decline in smoking is not straightforward, the latest research suggests that up to 57,000 people a year are quitting smoking through e-cigarette use who would not have quit through other means.
Ministers and officials receive a wide range of representations from different stakeholders regarding smoking and vaping. The Government is committed to keeping the evidence on e-cigarettes under review and Public Health England (PHE) will continue to publish an annual review of the evidence base.
Local stop smoking services are able to promote vaping as a tool to stop smoking, drawing upon advice from PHE and the National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training. According to PHE, smokers who combine e-cigarettes with local stop smoking services have some of the highest quit rates of all service users.