Home Politics Europe An Inquiry Into UK THR by The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Vaping

An Inquiry Into UK THR by The All-Party Parliamentary Group for Vaping

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) created the publication with the aim of exploring “the most appropriate parliamentary and regulatory response to e-cigarettes and to raise education and literacy amongst policy makers regarding e-cigarettes and related public policy questions.”

Diane Caruana

September 2, 2021

The APPG’s recommendations include ways of achieving the UK’s smokefree goal by taking advantage of Brexit and the ability to move away from EU regulations.

Titled, “Inquiry into UK Tobacco Harm Reduction Opportunities Post-Brexit: Achieving a Smoke-Free 2030,” the document discusses the opportunities the UK’s exit from the EU presents for devising new legislations for vaping products and other reduced-risk alternatives to combustible tobacco. The goal of the proposed amendments would be meeting the Government’s Smoke-Free 2030 goal. The APPG’s recommendations include ways of achieve this by taking advantage of Brexit and the ability to move away from EU regulations, some of which are known to be counterproductive to reducing smoking rates, such as the TPD.

The publication aims to provide information for the upcoming Tobacco Plan. “Given that the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) announced its intention to release a new Tobacco Control Plan for England in 2021, the work of this inquiry aimed to provide valuable cross-party parliamentary input into a process traditionally run by the civil service.”

“Through this inquiry it is our hope that Parliament can effectively channel the voice of the community to ensure the next Tobacco Control Plan will accelerate the UK’s push towards a smoke-free 2030. The intention was to collect evidence in the form of written submissions and an oral evidence session, then produce a report for Government that can be used as part of the policy making process ahead of the publication of the Tobacco Control Plan. A call for written evidence was made on 27th April 2021 and a website (https://beyondtpd.co.uk/) was set up to enable the submission of this written evidence.”

A call to defund the World Health Organization

Earlier this year, angered members of the APPG called onto the UK government to stop funding the World Health Organisation (WHO) unless it stops acting with hostility with regards to vaping. The cross-party committee highlighted the WHO’s inaccurate insistence that vaping is as dangerous as smoking, despite the scientific data indicating the contrary. In fact, to date there are countless peer reviewed scientific studies indicating the effectiveness of safer nicotine alternatives such as e-cigarettes and snus, as harm reduction and/or smoking cessation tools.