House of Lords
Lord Markham and Earl Russell spoke about vaping and tobacco harm reduction in the House of Lords
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by Dave Cross
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Liberal Democrat Earl Russell asked His Majesty's Government what assessment has been made of a claimed increase in vaping and vaping-related health conditions among young people.
In his role as Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care, Lord Markham replied: “Recent NHS Digital data suggests there has been an increase in young people aged 19 years old and under with a finished admission episode with a primary or secondary diagnosis of a vaping disorder. There were 40 reported cases in 2022/23, seven more than in 2021/22.
“The Government is taking a number of steps to prevent the circulation of illegal vaping products. In April 2023, we announced £3 million of funding to support a new illicit vapes enforcement squad to tackle underage sales and the illicit market. National Trading Standards have now begun setting up the operation, gathering intelligence, training staff and bolstering capacity and will begin field work later this year.”
Earl Russell followed up to ask if there is a plan to prevent illegal vaping products getting into the hands of young people.
Lord Markham responded by repeating the statement about NHS Digital data, adding that the Government claims to be taking steps and added the statement about National Trading Standards, intelligence gathering and training again.
Later, during the lung cancer screening debate, Lord Markham said: “In terms of identifying the smokers, the telephone is just one way of doing it. The hope is that using the digital data and the app means that more of these things will be on people’s records and identified with them. As ever with these things, electronic means will be the best way to do that, albeit those telephone resources in terms of supporting the GPs are very much part of the plan. It is understood that GPs have a large burden at the moment.
“There is not a lot more to add about the Khan review. The ambition is still there to be smoke-free by 2035 and investment has gone behind that. The best example of that, as has been mentioned, is people swapping cigarettes for vapes as one means to do it. Undoubtedly, a lot more needs to be done in that direction as well.”
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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