Smoking
(asked on 23rd November 2023) - View Source
Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether she has made an assessment of the implications for her policies of data from New Zealand on a generational ban on smoking.
Smoking is responsible for around 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom, causes around one in four cancer deaths and is responsible for just over 70% of all lung cancer deaths. No other consumer product kills up to two-thirds of its users. Smoking costs our country £17 billion a year and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. Almost every minute of every day someone is admitted to hospital because of smoking, and up to 75,000 General Practice appointments attributed to smoking each month – over 100 appointments every hour.
This is why the Government is planning to create a smokefree generation by bringing forward legislation so that children turning 14 years old this year or younger will never be legally sold tobacco products.
Modelling assumptions for the policy outline that one of our four scenarios modelled reflects the assumptions used in modelling from New Zealand. The document is available at the following link: