Major smoking crackdown launched as Government urges millions to switch to e-cigarettes

MINISTERS want to slash smoking rates by a quarter by 2022 by urging millions to switch to e-cigs.

They aim to reduce cigarette use to just one in eight adults within five years.

Under ambitious new plans, health bosses also intend to halve smoking in pregnancy from the current 10.7 per cent.

Around 80,000 Brits a year – more than 200 a day - die as a result of tobacco.

As part of the new Tobacco Control Plan, health bosses will promote e-cigarettes as a safer alternative to traditional fags.

Ministers also want to cut regular smoking among 15-year-olds from eight per cent to three per cent.

Campaigners Ash predict the UK could be smoke free – with less than one in 20 lighting up – by 2030.

Public Health Minister Steve Brine said: “Britain is a world-leader in tobacco control, and our tough action in the past decade has seen smoking rates in England fall to an all-time low of 15.5 per cent.

"But our vision is to create a smoke free generation.

“Smoking continues to kill hundreds of people a day in England, and we know the harms fall hardest on some of the poorest and most vulnerable people in our society.

"That’s why we are targeting prevention and local action to address the variation in smoking rates in our society, educate people about the risks and support them to quit for good.”

The plan aims to cut smoking rates among adults to 12 per cent or under by 2022.

Britain is a world-leader in tobacco control, and our tough action in the past decade has seen smoking rates in England fall to an all-time low. But our vision is to create a smoke free generation

Public Health Minister Steve Brine

Smoking among 15-year-olds who regularly smoke should also drop by 2022 from 8 per cent to 3 per cent or less.

Ministers also want to almost halve smoking in pregnancy by 2022, from 10.7 per cent at present to 6 per cent or under.

The Government said it wants to set a "bold ambition for a smoke-free generation" as it unveiled its plan for England.

Among the measures proposed is to include more help for smokers working in the NHS to quit, and working towards a "completely smoke-free NHS estate".

There will also be more help for smokers with mental health problems, figures show that more than 40 per cent of adults with a serious mental illness smoke.

All mental health inpatient services sites will also aim to be smoke free by 2018, and prisons will get more support to become smoke free.

There are currently 7.3 million adult smokers in England and more than 200 people a day die from a smoking-related illness which could have been prevented.

The difference in life expectancy between the poorest and the richest can be as much as nine years - with smoking accounting for about half of this difference.

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Duncan Selbie, chief executive of PHE, said: "We are at a pivotal point where an end is in sight and a smoke-free generation a reality.

"But the final push, reaching the most vulnerable and disadvantaged, will undoubtedly be the hardest.

"Only by everyone pulling together can we hope to end the loss of life and suffering smoking has wreaked for far too long.

"Public Health England will do everything possible to make this happen."

Deborah Arnott, chief executive of Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), said: "Funding must be found if the Government is to achieve its vision of a 'smoke-free generation'.

"The tobacco industry should be made to pay through a licence fee on the 'polluter pays' principle.

"Tobacco manufacturers are some of the most profitable companies on earth; they can easily afford the costs of radical action to drive down smoking rates."

Simon Clark, director of smokers' group Forest, said: "The most important stakeholder is the consumer, yet they are routinely ignored by Government.

"Ministers should stop lecturing smokers and engage with them."

He added: "The Tobacco Control Plan should include a systematic review of the impact of measures such as the display ban and plain packaging.

"It's time too to question the use of public money to fund stop-smoking services and other anti-smoking campaigns."

The British Medical Association's board of science chairman Professor Parveen Kumar said: "If we're to stop the 79,000 annual deaths in England attributed to smoking, smoking cessation services and tobacco control measures must be adequately funded, yet local authorities are reducing stop-smoking budgets, merging services into unwieldy departments or cutting services altogether.

"Cuts to these highly cost-effective services will only increase health inequalities and demand on tomorrow's GP surgeries and hospital wards."

Peter Nixon, the UK boss of tobacco giant Philip Morris, said: "We strongly support the Government's ambition to create a smoke free generation.

"The Tobacco Control Plan is a major step forward in recognising the vital role that e-cigarettes and other alternatives to cigarettes can play in achieving that goal."