The UK Government plans to eliminate smoking from Britain by 2030, according to leaked documents.
Reports suggest Health Secretary Matt Hancock will announce the target next week when he presents a Green Paper focusing on the importance of prevention.
If confirmed, England's target will be four years ahead of that set by the Scottish Government.
READ MORE: Move to raise Scotland's legal age for smoking to 21 in war on tobacco
Scottish ministers have committed to making the counry "smoke free" by 2034, by reducing prevalence of smoking to five per cent of the adult population or less. However current trends suggest this goal is likely to be missed.
Smoking remains the UK’s biggest preventable cause of cancer, despite rates of Britons lighting up halving in the the last 35 years.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock (David Mirzoeff/PA)
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% 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.”
It is not clear whether the UK Government will adopt a similar definition to Scottish ministers, deeming smoking to have been 'eliminated' when fewer than five per cent of adults smoke. A Department of Health and Social Care spokeswoman said: “I’m afraid we can’t comment on leaks.”
READ MORE: Children in poor areas six times more likely to pass tobacco shops
Simon Clark, director of smokers’ group Forest, said people have the right to light up “without being harassed to quit”.
“It’s not up to government to dictate people’s lifestyle,” he said.
There are now 1.8 million fewer adult smokers in England than seven years ago according to the most recnet figures, with 5.9 million cigarette smokers (14.4 per cent of the population), down from 7.7 million in 2011.
Throughout the UK, 14.7 per cent of adults smoke, Scotland having the highest rate at 16.3 per cent, followed by 15.9 per cent in Wales and 15.5 perr cent in Northern Ireland.
Vaping is growing in popularity, particularly as an aid to quitting smoking (Peter Byrne/PA)
Meanwhile, e-cigarette use continues to rise, with 6.3 per cent of adults vaping in 2018, up from 5.5 per cent the previous year. Just over half (51.5%) of those vaping said it was to help them quit smoking.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here