§ Mrs. Wiseasked the Secretary of State for Social Services how much is spent by the Health Education Council or other public agencies in order to acquaint the public with the dangers of smoking; and how this compares with advertising spending by the tobacco companies.
§ Mr. MoyleSo far in 1977–78, the Health Education Council has spent £238,000 on publicity of this kind. Its current "Better Health" campaign, which is costing about £750,000 overall, also contains references to the dangers of smoking, but it is not possible to isolate the specific cost of these. Health authorities are also active in the field of smoking and health as part of then-general responsibilities for health education, but again it is not possible to quantify the expenditure on a specific element.
The total annual expenditure by the tobacco industry on cigarette advertising was given as £25 million in the First Report of the Expenditure Committee 1976–77—Preventive Medicine, Volume 1, paragraph 148. Much of this may be attributed to competitive advertising of different brands.