Parliament
Questions from MPs and answers the Government from the United Kingdom’s House of Commons
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by Dave Cross
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Upper Bann’s Carla Lockhart asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care what steps the Government is taking to raise young people's awareness of the risks of vaping.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care Neil O'Brien told her: “To raise awareness of the risks of vaping to children, we have updated information and advice online at the Better Health and Talk to Frank platforms. The Department of Health and Social Care also works with the Department of Education on communications to schools to prevent children from starting vaping.”
Labour’s Andrew Gwynne, the MP for Denton and Reddish, asked the Secretary of State what assessment has been made of the implications for the Department's policies of the finding that without further action now, England will miss the smokefree 2030 target by at least seven years.
Neil O'Brien said: “We are currently considering the recommendations made in ‘The Khan review: making smoking obsolete' and further information on plans to meet the 2030 target will be available in due course.”
This was previously promised month’s ago before the turmoil in the Department.
Gwynne then asked when the Department plans to provide the update on plans to deliver the smoke-free target.
O'Brien repeated his standard answer that the government is “currently considering the recommendations” and hopes to provide an update “in due course”.
The Shadow Health and Social Care Minister followed up by asking what steps the Department of Health is planning to take to tackle underage vape use.
Neil O'Brien responded: “There is a regulatory framework to deter the appeal of vapes to children, through restricting product advertising, limits on nicotine strength, labelling and safety requirements. It is illegal to sell vapes to those aged under 18 years old and we continue to work with enforcement agencies to ensure these regulations are being enforced in England.
“In order to raise awareness of the risks of vaping to children, we have recently updated information and advice on the Better Health and Talk to Frank online platforms. We will also continue to work with the Department of Education to communicate to schools on policies to prevent children from starting to vape.”
Finally, Gwynne asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care what recent estimate the Department has made of the levels of vape use in secondary schools.
The Minister for Primary Care and Public Health told him: “NHS Digital’s ‘Smoking, Drinking and Drug Use among Young People in England, 2021’ published in September 2022, shows that current regular and occasional use of e-cigarettes in 11- to 15-year-olds is at 9%. The data is available here. It is illegal to sell a vaping product to anyone aged under 18 years old.”
Dave Cross
Journalist at POTVDave is a freelance writer; with articles on music, motorbikes, football, pop-science, vaping and tobacco harm reduction in Sounds, Melody Maker, UBG, AWoL, Bike, When Saturday Comes, Vape News Magazine, and syndicated across the Johnston Press group. He was published in an anthology of “Greatest Football Writing”, but still believes this was a mistake. Dave contributes sketches to comedy shows and used to co-host a radio sketch show. He’s worked with numerous start-ups to develop content for their websites.
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