At the beginning of February, The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Sajid Javid, announced an independent review into tobacco control policies in order to achieve the government’s target of making England smoke free by 2030.
The review is led by Javed Khan, OBE, who is tasked with providing “independent, evidence-based advice that will inform the government’s approach to tackling the stark health disparities associated with tobacco use” and is expected to report back in April. Mr Khan has appealed on Twitter for suggestions as to how the smokefree target can be reached on the hashtag #IndependentSmokingReview. According to Sajid Javid’s announcement, Mr Khan’s report will help the government to decide “the most impactful interventions to reduce the uptake of smoking and to support smoking cessation”. Accordingly, the NNA has this week written to Mr Khan with a comprehensive set of proposals setting out why tobacco harm reduction should be adopted as a critical strategy for future tobacco policy and is the only realistic approach if the Smokefree 2030 goal is to be achieved. You can download our letter from this link here or read it below.
CALL OUT: I want to hear your views and what we can do to support current smokers to quit, and to stop people taking up smoking. Use the hashtag #TobaccoIndependentReview. Email:
— Javed Khan OBE (@JavedKhanCEO) February 18, 2022This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. Thread 1/6
We have also encouraged consumers on social media to respond to Mr Khan’s call for evidence by sharing their experience of how reduced risk products worked for them and how making a range of low-risk products widely available could help smokers in the future, and we continue to ask that you do so either by engaging on Twitter or by sending your thoughts to the email provided,