Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answers of 10 December 2015 to Questions 18458 and 18543, what assessment he has made of the compatibility with the conditions applicable to grants awarded to Action on Smoking and Health of its the provision of secretariat assistance to the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health; if he will review the conditions set out in the award letters for such grants; and if he will investigate any breaches in such conditions.

The conditions applicable to grants awarded to Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) are set out in the grant award letters. The Department has made clear that none of this funding is to be used for lobbying purposes.

The Section 64 grant must be spent in delivering the agreed project outputs set out in the grant award letter and it does not fund secretariat support for the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health.

ASH’s compliance with the conditions of the grant is assessed at the grant monitoring meetings held between the Deputy Director of tobacco control and representatives from ASH as well as in the final full year grant monitoring and governance reports.