Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, with reference to the consultation on Creating a smokefree generation and tackling youth vaping, updated by her Department on 20 October 2023, whether she plans to update that consultation to reflect the planned repeal of the generational smoking ban in New Zealand.

Smoking is responsible for around 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom and causes around one in four cancer deaths in the UK. It also costs our country £17 billion a year and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service.

Vaping is rightly used by adults as a tool to quit smoking as they are substantially less harmful than cigarettes. However, the Government is concerned about the worrying rise in vaping among children, with youth vaping tripling in the last three years and one in five children having now used a vape.

Whilst New Zealand plan to repeal their legislation, the Government is still planning to create a smokefree generation by bringing forward legislation so that children turning 14 years old or younger this year will never be legally sold tobacco products, and further crack down on youth vaping by consulting on measures to reduce the appeal and availability of vapes to children. On 12 October 2023, we launched a UK-wide consultation to gather views on these proposals and their implementation.