Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to tackle the regional variation in smoking cessation rates.

One of the main aims of the Government’s Tobacco Control Plan for England is to reduce the regional and socio-economic variations in smoking rates, by achieving system-wide

change and targeting actions at the right groups.

Actions include promoting links to smoking cessation services across the whole health and care system and full implementation of relevant National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines by 2022.

‘Smoke-free generation: tobacco control plan for England’ can be viewed at the following link:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/towards-a-smoke-free-generation-tobacco-control-plan-for-england

Local authorities are responsible for commissioning a range of stop smoking support to meet the needs of their local population. Public Health England supports local authorities to do this by providing a range of data and guidance.