Plans to give smoking the flick by 2030 under leaked government vision
Plans to eliminate smoking from Britain by 2030 are to be released by the UK Government, leaked documents have reportedly shown.
Health secretary Matt Hancock will announce the target next week when he presents a Green Paper focusing on the importance of prevention.
Smoking remains the UK’S biggest preventable cause of cancer despite rates of Britons lighting up halving in the past 35 years.
Scotland has the highest ratio of adults smoking across the UK at 16.3 per cent, followed by 15.9 per cent in Wales and 15.5 per cent in Northern Ireland. The rate in the UK as a whole is 14.7 per cent, with England at a low of 14.4 per cent.
The Scottish Government has previously set a target to reduce the number of smokers to below 5 per cent of the population by 2034. Tobacco companies rather than health providers would be made to cover the cost of helping people to quit smoking, according to the leaked documents.
Black market cigarettes will also be targeted by ministers and quit leaflets will be placed inside legal cigarette packets.
“The gains in tobacco control have been hard won and there’s still much to do,” the plans reportedly say.
“For the 15 per cent of adults who are not yet smoke-free, smoking is the leading cause of ill-health and early death, and a major cause of inequalities. That’s why the Government wants to finish the job.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: “I’m afraid we can’t comment on leaks.”
Simon Clark, director of smokers’ group Forest, said people had the right to light up “without being harassed to quit”.
“It’s not up to government to dictate people’s lifestyle,” he said. E-cigarette use has meanwhile continued to rise, with 6.3 per cent of adults vaping last year, up from 5.5 per cent the previous year. Just over half (51.5 per cent) of those vaping said it was to help them quit smoking. Mr Hancock launched his “vision for prevention” in November last year, which he said at the time would aim to add five years to healthy life expectancy.