To consider the following Motion in the names of Councillors Khan, Pandor, Scott, Greaves, White and Lyons;
This Council notes that:
· On 9th June 2021, All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Smoking and Health launched its report and recommendations for the forthcoming Tobacco Control Plan to secure the Government’s ambition of a Smokefree country by 2030. On 10th June there was a Westminster Hall debate on APPG recommendations. The recommendations included a “Smokefree Fund” secured through a polluter pays amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill.
· The next Tobacco Control Plan for England is expected before the end of 2021
· The Government’s ambition is that by 2030 less than 1 in 20 people in England will smoke
· It is recognised that achieving a smokefree 2030 will be ‘extremely challenging’, particularly in areas of deprivation and among people living with mental health conditions and will require ‘bold action to both discourage young people from starting in the first place, and to support smokers to quit’. In the two years since the ambition was stated, an estimated 200,000 children under the age of 16 have started smoking, two thirds of who will without action, become regular smokers.
· Fluctuations in desire to quit and success at quitting, have taught us that sustained declines in smoking prevalence are only achieved when action is systematic, co-ordinated and properly resourced.
· The Chief Medical Officer, Professor Chris Whitty, pointed out recently, this is an industry that kills people for profit, and more people are likely to have died last year and this year from smoking than COVID-19.
· Smoking not only kills people prematurely, but it also drives them into poverty and reduces healthy life expectancy, with smokers needing help with everyday tasks 7 years earlier than those who’ve never smoked. But this burden is not equal. Smoking is concentrated among disadvantaged groups locking in poverty and poor health across the generations.
· In 2019 the smoking rate in Kirklees is 14.3%, which is above the national average of 13.9%. The highest rates of smoking in Kirklees are in the wards with the highest levels of deprivation. Dewsbury West, (17.1%) Dewsbury East (15.8%) and Batley West (15.8%) and Batley East (15.9%).
· The total additional spending on social care in Kirklees as a result of smoking for adults aged 50 and over in 2021 was approximately: £9,162,617. Please see the Action on Smoking (ASH) Social Care cost calculator available at https://ash.org.uk/information-and-resources/reports-submissions/reports/costtosocialcare/
· Kirklees Council Public Health supports the work of Breathe2025, Yorkshire and Humber’s tobacco control collaboration through the tobacco community of improvement in partnership with PHE and other LA’s. Through working together, we are better at achieving our aims of a smokefree generation.
This Council resolves:
- To commit to registering support as a council to the ASH Smokefree Roadmap to achieving a smokefree society by 2030, already supported by over 74 organisations, including;
Sheffield City Council, Gateshead Council, Newcastle City Council, North Tyneside Council, South Tyneside Council, West Yorkshire and Harrogate ICS, Greater Manchester Combined Authority, Cancer Research UK, Royal College of General Practitioners, Faculty of Public Health, Association of Directors of Public Health, Royal College of Physicians, The Health Foundation, Royal Society for Public Health, NCSCT (National Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training)
Full List and pledge at https://smokefreeaction.org.uk/smokefree2030/
- To write to all local MPs to ask them to sign up to the pledge publicly and work with the council on achieving its aims.
- To ask the Cabinet to review the Tobacco Control Plan for England (expected to be released in October 2021) and agree a position on behalf of the Council.
Decision:
Item not considered due to time constraints.