The Chancellor will announce the Budget tomorrow, and ASH, UK Centre for Tobacco and Alcohol Studies and Cancer Research have reiterated a request to increase both the tax on tobacco, and a levy on the tobacco industry as a whole, which would be used for cessation support and to dissuade others from taking up a tobacco habit.
The proposed levy will mean the tobacco industry would needs to raise £500 million in funding to reduce smoking numbers. The levy has the support of over a hundred health organisations, and it is hoped that it will go some way to redress the damage tobacco consumption inflicts on society, as Chief Executive of ASH explains, “While public health is facing funding cuts the tobacco industry continues to reap huge profits from product that kills around 100,000 people every year in the UK. It’s time the peddlers of death and disease were made to pay for the harm they cause.”
ASH are not the only ones who want to see a levy of this kind imposed; Cancer Research’s ‘Cough Up’ campaign has collected over 16,000 signatures on a petition in the hopes this will spur Chancellor George Osborne into action.
But if the levy does go into effect, how will the it work? In practice, it would mean that for every cigarette sold, the government would force tobacco companies to pay 1p, which would be invested directly into advertising campaigns and public health services.
According to Cancer Research, over 450,000 people used NHS Stop Smoking Services in England in 2015, and with two thirds of smokers looking to quit, it is essential that these services are provided with a high level of funding to prevent them being closed down.
