§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what his policy is on the future use of the terms light and mild on cigarette packets. [127737]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe Government recognise that certain terms can be used to suggest that one tobacco product is less harmful than another. We are therefore committed to banning the use of "misleading descriptors."
The Tobacco Products (Manufacture, Presentation and Sale) (Safety) Regulations 2002 prohibit the supply of tobacco products, "the packaging of which carries any name, brand name, text, trademark or pictorial or any other representation or sign which suggests that that tobacco product is less harmful to health than other tobacco products." The supply of such cigarette packets must cease as of 30 September 2003.
The Government would expect the prohibition to include terms such as "light" and "mild".
§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what plans he has to pilot the scheme running at hospitals in Norwich to help patients following the ban on smoking in the hospitals. [127691]
§ Dr. LadymanThe Department of Health has no plans to pilot national smoking prevention schemes. With the changes under "Shifting the Balance of Power", it is now for strategic health authorities and their primary care trusts to introduce smoke-free policies.
The Chief Medical Officer's annual report recommended to Government, that among other recommendations, employers should plan to introduce smoke free workplaces; the public sector and health service should take the lead and this year set dates by which their premises will become entirely smoke free.
The Department of Health are also running a pilot study, led by St. George's hospital, to look into developing a toolkit of introducing a smoking cessation service/policy within hospitals. The results of this study should be available in 2005. We have also asked the British Thoracic Society to undertake a survey of hospitals to see what smoking policies they have introduced.
§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the recommendations of the Chief Medical Officer in relation to smoking in public places. [127631]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe Chief Medical Officer's report should leave no-one in any doubt that secondhand smoke is an important public health issue, and the Government are looking very closely at the Chief 263W Medical Officer's recommendations. We wish to ensure real progress is being made in the availability of smoke-free public places.
In our 1998 White paper, "Smoking Kills", we agreed that completely smoke-free places are the ideal. The World Health Organisation's Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, which the UK signed in June 2003, also called for action to protect people from tobacco smoke. Taking action on smoking in the workplace and in public places is an important element of international best practice in tobacco control.
We also want to increase the public's awareness of the real health risks from second-hand smoke: not merely the discomfort caused by being in a smoky atmosphere. That is why we have launched an education campaign, making everyone aware of the need to protect others, particularly children, from the harm caused by second-hand smoke. From 1 April 2003. the Department of Health has also taken a lead in making all our buildings smoke-free and we will be encouraging others to follow this lead.
§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what basis the Government used for establishing smoking cessation targets for primary care trusts. [127623]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThere are national targets. Primary care trusts (PCTs) have not been set smoking cessation targets. PCTs were asked to plan together with their strategic health authorities low to support the national Priorities and Planning Framework (PPF) target
to reduce the rate of smoking contributing to the national target of: reducing the rate in manual groups from 32 per cent. in 1998 to 26 per cent. by 2010; 800,000 smokers from all groups successfully quitting at the four week stage by 2006".
§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the Government has spent centrally on smoking cessation advertising and awareness campaigns since 1995; and what central allocations have been made in the current year. [128233]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonInternational evidence shows that key elements in any tobacco control strategy are advertising and public education. In the 1998 White Paper, "Smoking Kills", the Government committed itself to a programme of public education to persuade smokers to quit and non-smokers not to start.
Education and media campaign spending is shown in the table.
Year £ millions 1995–96 5.5 1996–97 6.5 1997–98 16.5 1998–99 2.7 1999–2000 15.9 2000–01 13.73 2001–02 13.3 2002–03 13.0 2003–04 114.2 Note:
1 Expenditure to date
264WThis funding includes expenditure on telephone helplines per annum for the NHS Smoking Helpline—£1.1 million; the NHS pregnancy smoking helpline—£152,000; and the NHS Asian Tobacco Helpline—£78,500. £15 million over the three years from 2003–04 to 2005–06 will be available to key health charities, beginning with the British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK to develop hard-hitting messages on the dangers of smoking.
§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how much the Government have spent centrally on smoking cessation programmes in each year since 1997; and how much has been allocated in the current year. [128234]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe national health service stop smoking services were launched in 1999. The services received a total of £76 million over a four year period 1999–2000 to 2002–03.
A further £138 million has been allocated over the three years 2003–06.
§ Chris GraylingTo ask the Secretary of State for Health whether his Department tracks smokers who have given up for longer than four weeks through the smoking-cessation services. [127679]
§ Miss Melanie JohnsonThe Department of Health does not require the national health service stop smoking services to track smokers who have given up for longer than four weeks, although some services do. Follow-up at four weeks was chosen as a viable, practical way to ascertain initial success, following advice from experts in smoking cessation.
Data from 52-week follow up were originally collected for clients who set a quit date in specialist services in health action zones in 1999–2000. A high proportion of clients were lost to the service and some services found that 52-week follow up took disproportionate resources.