Parliament Too
A very busy period in the Houses of Parliament produces two articles this week covering questions and answers about vaping and tobacco harm reduction
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by Dave Cross
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Southampton’s Conservative Royston Smith asked the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care whether he plans to make it his policy to recommend vaping as a substitute for smoking in the Health Disparities White Paper or the Tobacco Control Plan for England.
Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care Maggie Throup responded: “The Government’s aim is to maximise the opportunities for smokers to switch to vaping whilst preventing non-smokers and young people from starting to vape. We are considering the recommendations of the recent review led by Dr Javed Khan, which will inform the health disparities white paper and the Tobacco Control Plan.”
Northampton South’s Conservative representative, Andrew Lewer asked the Secretary of State what estimate has been made of trends in the take-up of vaping products since 2015.
Maggie Throup replied: “The Office for National Statistics’ data shows that in England in 2020, 6.2% of those aged 16 years old and over or approximately 2.8 million people were current vape users, compared with 4.5% or 2 million users in 2015. In 2020, 17.4% of cigarette smokers were also current vape or dual users, compared with 14.3% in 2015 and 12% of ex-smokers were current vape users in 2020 compared with 8% in 2015. Approximately 1.1% of adults who had never smoked were current vape users in 2020, compared with 0.2% in 2015.”
Knowsley’s Labour MP George Howarth asked the Secretary of State what assessment has been made of the potential merits for people who smoke of allowing major supermarkets to advertise ecigs and heat-not-burn products to smokers.
Maggie Throup told him: “‘The Khan review: making smoking obsolete’ published on 9 June made recommendations to support the Government’s ambition for England to be smoke free by 2030. These recommendations include measures to support smokers switching to e-cigarettes, such as through changing advertising and marketing regulations. The Department is considering these recommendations and we will respond in the forthcoming white paper on health disparities and in the Tobacco Control Plan, which will be published later this year.”
Finally, Windsor’s prolific Adam Afriyie added to the wealth of questions he has posed on this subject by asking the Secretary of State whether the Department for Health and Social Care has made an assessment of the potential merits of bringing forward further regulations on nicotine pouches to ensure that they do not reach unintended audiences in the context of their growing popularity.
He also wanted to know if the Department has come to a decision about using cigarette pack inserts to promote vaping and other reduced harm products to smokers.
Maggie Throup told him: “The Department is currently considering the recommendations made in the ‘The Khan review: making smoking obsolete'. This includes proposals related to e-cigarettes, heated tobacco and nicotine pouches and proposals to assist smokers to quit, such as through the introduction of pack inserts.
“Our response to the review will be included in the forthcoming white paper on health disparities, which we plan to publish in summer 2022 and the Tobacco Control Plan, due to be published later this year.”
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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