Questions In Parliament
Further questions about vaping have been posed to Steve Brine MP, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care
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by Dave Cross
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Alex Cunningham, who represents Labour for Stockton North, asked the Parliamentary Under-Secretary for details about the meetings and discussions the government has held with companies representing the tobacco and vaping industries. He was particularly interested in discussions relating to vape regulation and policy over the last three years.
Steve Brine told Cunningham: “The Department has held discussions and meetings with the Independent British Vape Trade Association (IBVTA), who is independent of the tobacco industry, over the past three years. I also met the IBVTA on 12 March 2018 to discuss United Kingdom vaping and regulations.”
IBVTA claimed to have met with the Chancellor of the Exchequer during August, but Brine said The Department of Health and Social Care does not collect data on discussions with the vaping industry from other government departments.
Bob Blackman, Conservative MP for Harrow East, asked the Under-Secretary how much The Department of Health and Social Care has spent on campaigns to promote the smoking cessation during the current financial year. He also wanted to know how much money was going to be committed for the rest of the year to April.
Brine responded: “Public Health England runs smoking cessation campaigns. Media spend to date during 2018/19 on campaigns to promote the cessation of smoking is £1.2 million. £2.4 million has been allocated in total for the media spend on cessation campaigns in 2018/19.”
“As the 2018/19 financial year is not yet complete and campaign work is ongoing, these figures should be considered provisional. Figures are net plus agency fees and commissions (rounded to the nearest £100,000). Figures exclude Value Added Tax.”
Gregory Campbell, the DUP Shadow Spokesperson for Health, what initiatives the National Health Service has undertaken as a result of the March 2018 World Conference on Tobacco or Health.
Steve Brine informed Campbell: “We are not aware of any local initiatives launched in the National Health Service as a direct result of the 2018 World Conference on Tobacco or Health. As with previous World Conferences, the United Kingdom Government attended the 2018 World Conference to share our experiences as a world leader on tobacco control, and to inform our thinking on future policy development. NHS England has a number of commitments to tackle smoking, as set out in the 2017 Tobacco Control Plan and associated Delivery Plan.”
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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