Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he had made of the level of regional variation in smoking prevalences across England; and whether the Government plans to take steps to address those regional variations.

There are unacceptable variations in smoking prevalence across England which ranges from 9.5% to 26.8%. This information can be found as part of the Tobacco Control Profiles at:

http://www.tobaccoprofiles.info/

The new tobacco control plan will place tackling these inequalities at its heart.