§ Mr. Peter BottomleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health when her Department first and last received representations from the British Medical Association for a ban on tobacco promotion as a major means of reducing smoking and if she will estimate the reduction in smoking(a) during that period and (b) from the peak to the present day.
§ Mr. SackvilleThe Secretary to the Council of the British Medical Association, BMA, wrote to the Department of Health in May 1964, indicating the council's support for a general decrease in advertisements for tobacco products beginning with a ban on all television advertisements. The most recent occasion on which the BMA made a formal representation to the Government for a ban on tobacco advertising was 24 September 1993.
According to the estimates of the Tobacco Advisory Council—now the Tobacco Manufacturers Association—69 per cent. of men and 41 per cent. of women in Great Britain smoked cigarettes, pipes or cigars in 1964. The 1992 general household survey showed that 36 per cent. of men and 28 per cent. of women now smoke cigarettes, pipes or cigars. The two sources of data are not strictly comparable.
The Tobacco Advisory Council's estimates of smoking prevalence go back to 1948. The highest prevalence of smoking among men, 82 per cent., occurred in the first year of the series, 1948. The highest prevalence among women, 44 per cent., occurred first in 1957 and most recently in 1974.