Smoking (Hansard, 13 July 1993)

§ Mr. McCartney
To ask the Secretary of State for Health by whom the review, proposed in The "The Health of the Nation" White Paper, of the possible legal control of the use of additives and emission of toxic substances from cigarettes was instituted; who is conducting the review; and which organisations and individuals have been invited to submit their views.

§ Mr. Sackville
The review will be established in due course.

§ Mr. Pickthall
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what progress has been made towards achieving the targets for reducing smoking prevalence to 20 per cent. of adults by 2000, and by 33 per cent. of 11 to 15-year-olds by 1994.

§ Mr. Sackville
The results of the biennial survey of adult smoking in 1990 gave levels of 31 per cent. for men and 29 per cent. for women and these were taken as the base for "The Health of the Nation" target. The results of the 1992 survey are not yet available.
The base figure for children's smoking—8 per cent.—is that reported in the 1988 Office of Population Censuses and Surveys biennial survey of smoking among secondary schoolchildren. The 1990 survey showed a level of 10 per cent. but the general trend will not be known until the results of the 1992 survey are available late this year.

§ Mrs. Currie
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate she has made of the expected reduction in the consumption of cigarettes as a result of the increase in excise duty announced in the Chancellor's last Budget; and what would be the expected aggregated reduction in consumption were the same increase in real terms to be repeated at each successive Budget up to and including 2000.

§ Mr. Sackville
The consumption of cigarettes would be expected to reduce by between 1 per cent. and 2 per cent. as a result of the March 1993 Budget increase in tobacco taxation, assuming no change in other factors. The aggregated reduction in consumption if the same increase were repeated in each Budget up to and including the year 2000 would be expected to be in the range 9 per cent. to 18 per cent.