Political Questions
Questions about tobacco harm reduction have been posed in the Houses of Parliament and to the Mayor of London Sadiq Khan
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by Dave Cross
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Dan Carden, the Labour MP for Liverpool and Walton asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care when the Department for Health plans to publish the Tobacco Control Plan.
Minister for Vaccines and Public Health Maggie Throup to Dan Carden: “Following the Khan Review published in June 2022, the Department is considering its recommendations. The Review will inform the new Tobacco Control Plan, which will be published in due course.”
Maggie Throup has been saying this for five months and there is still no definitive date. Sources close to Westminster indicate that it is unlikely any of the Khan Review’s more progressive suggestions will make it to the Tobacco Control Plan.
Andrew Gwynne, the Shadow Minister for Health and Social Care, asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care what assessment has made of the trends in the level of use of e-cigarettes in people under 18 years old.
Dr Caroline Johnson, the new Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care, helpfully responded: “The Department of Health and Social Care has indicated that it will not be possible to answer this question within the usual time period. An answer is being prepared and will be provided as soon as it is available.”
Some advocates wonder when the Department of Health and Social Care is going to begin doing any work whatsoever – but then they do have the tricky problem of Oxford commas in the NHS to sort out first.
The London Assembly is a forum of elected members who scrutinise the activities of the Mayor of London. The Green’s Zack Polanski asked: “Given that Londoners spend more on vaping than residents in any other city in the country, the incorrect disposal of e-cigarettes is potentially contributing an additional burden of electrical waste. What are you doing to address this issue?”
Mayor of London Sadiq Khan responded: “E-cigarettes or ‘vapes’ are classed as waste electrical and electronic equipment (WEEE) once disposed of. Incorrect disposal of any waste material, including WEEE, can result in contamination of the waste or recycling stream and is one of the most common issues London’s local authorities face, affecting budgets, recycling performance and quality of recyclate. Through ReLondon, I have provided resources to boroughs to help tackle contamination including a contamination toolkit, communications assets and case studies.
“Londoners can usually recycle WEEE at their local household waste recycling centre which can be located on the London Recycles website. To improve access to WEEE recycling, the ReLondon Flats Recycling Package included WEEE waste bins for small electricals in communal bin stores which resulted in a 52% reduction in target small electricals in residual waste. My officers are working with ReLondon to encourage all boroughs to include roll out of the Flats Recycling Package in their RRPs.”
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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