§ Mrs. SpelmanTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how much money was spent on sustained and co-ordinated health education campaigns aimed at reducing smoking in England in(a) 1996–97, (b) 1999–2000 and (c) 2000–01; what the figure will be for 2001–02; and if he will reconcile these figures with those in paragraph 6.38 of the 1998 White Paper, "Smoking Kills". [158351]
331W
§ Yvette Cooper[holding answer 23 April 2001]: The information requested is as follows:
£ million 1996–97 6.5 1999–2000 15.9 2000–01 13.73 2001–02 1— 1 Yet to be finally determined The 1998 White Paper "Smoking Kills" set out an overall strategy on tobacco control including expenditure of some £50 million on health education and up to £60 million on cessation services.
Since "Smoking Kills" the Government have made first Buproprion (Zyban) and more recently all nicotine replacement therapy products available on National Health Service prescription and appropriate increases have been made in the unified budgets to meet the expected cost of these developments.
The overall sums devoted to tackling tobacco will comfortably exceed the sums committed in "Smoking Kills".