Rachael Maskell Takes Ministers To Task
Labour’s Rachael Maskell has inundated Conservative Ministers with a plethora of questions about vaping and tobacco harm reduction
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by Dave Cross
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To begin, Rachael Maskell asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care whether he is taking steps to ensure that public health messages on vaping are targeted at adults.
Neil O'Brien told her that the public health messaging on vaping is clear, “vapes should only be recommended to support adult smokers quitting. They are not recommended for under-18s or non-smokers.”
He pointed to the Better Health website, which states: “While vaping can help smokers quit, it is not harmless and is not for young people under 18. It is especially important to protect young lungs and brains.”
The Labour/Co-operative MP followed up by asking if steps will be taken to create stop vaping programmes for adults and children. She also wanted to know if these would receive additional resources, in particular to local public health teams, to support the programmes.
O'Brien said that a stop vaping programme will be created as part of the national Swap to Stop scheme. No additional funds were pledged.
The York Central MP then asked about the monitoring of hospital admissions of young people related to vaping.
Neil O'Brien said that hospital admissions in England data for the past three years can be viewed through recently reported National Health Service data.
“Between 2022 and 2023, there were 40 instances of primary or secondary diagnoses for children from 0-19 years, up from 37 between 2021 and 2022,” he said. “Please note that admissions do not represent the number of patients, as a person may have more than one admission within the period, and figures from 2022 to 2023 are provisional.”
Maskell continued: “What estimate has he made of how many (a) non-smokers and (b) ex-smokers have taken up vaping in the last year?”
O'Brien responded: “Using the latest Office for National Statistics data from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, the Department estimates that in England in 2021 there were around 1.6 million ex-smokers that currently vaped, an increase from around 1.4 million in 2020.
There were around 495,000 non-smokers that currently vaped in England in 2021, an increase from around 375,000 in 2020.”
Rachael Maskell continued, asking what estimate has been made of how many non-smokers and ex-smokers have taken up vaping over the last year.
O'Brien replied: “Using the latest Office for National Statistics data from the Opinions and Lifestyle Survey, the Department estimates that in England in 2021 there were around 1.6 million ex-smokers that currently vaped, an increase from around 1.4 million in 2020.
There were around 495,000 non-smokers that currently vaped in England in 2021, an increase from around 375,000 in 2020.”
Maskell asked about the potential effect of plain packaging but O'Brien informed her that no formal assessment has been made.
Rachael then moved on to the issue of supporting Trading standards to prevent the illicit sale of vapes.
O’Brien said: “The Government is working closely with Trading Standards to prevent the illicit sale of vapes. On 11 April 2023, we announced £3 million of funding for National Trading Standards for a new specialised illicit vaping enforcement squad. This squad will tackle underage vape sales as well as removing illicit products from the market.”
Then she asked if a cross-department public health strategy will be formed to address vaping by children.
The reply: “Protecting children from the risks of vaping is a key Government priority. The Prime Minister announced on 30 May that we will update the health education curriculum to teach kids about the risks of vaping. To support this, the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities is producing a new resource pack for schools on vaping for the start of the new academic year.
“These resources build on other content we have produced for young people on the FRANK and Better Health websites, and input to educational resources produced by partners including the PSHE Association.
“There are no current plans to build a cross-Department public health strategy to address youth vaping. We continue to work jointly across Government to address vaping by children.”
Maskell followed up by wondering what steps are being taken to warn children and young people about the harmful content of single use vapes.
Neil O'Brien said that protecting children from the risks of vaping is a key Government priority and repeated his previous comment.
Photo Credit:
Rachael Maskell’s image from https://www.rachaelmaskell.com/ used under ‘Fair Use’
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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