Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask His Majesty's Government, further to the remarks by Baroness Merron on 23 April (HL Deb col 741), what evidence is there that "There are around five times more people smoking non-cigarette tobacco, such as cigars, than a decade ago"; and what are the precise statistics for different categories of non-cigarette, including hand-made cigars, machine-made cigars, pipe tobacco and shisha, within that statement.

Tobacco is the single most important entirely preventable cause of ill health, disability, and death in this country, and is responsible for approximately 80,000 deaths in the United Kingdom each year. There is no safe level of tobacco consumption. All tobacco products are harmful.

A paper by Dr Sarah E Jackson, Dr Lion Shahab, and Dr Jamie Brown titled Trends in Exclusive Non-Cigarette Tobacco Smoking in England: A Population Survey 2013–2023 provides the evidence behind the statement on other tobacco products. The available data does not provide the precise statistics for the different categories of other tobacco products.