The government is consulting on its plan to introduce pack inserts into tobacco products to encourage more smokers to quit.
Placed inside the packaging of cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco, they would contain positive messages to encourage people to quit and signpost them to advice and support.
The messages would set out the health benefits of quitting – for example, improvements to breathing within a matter of days and a 50% reduction in the risk of heart attack within a year – as well as showing smokers how much money they stand to save by giving up, with the average person likely to save over £2,000 per year if they quit.
Health and Social Care Secretary Steve Barclay said: “Smoking places a huge burden on the NHS, economy and individuals. It directly causes a whole host of health problems – including cancers and cardiovascular disease – and costs the economy billions every year in lost productivity.
“By taking action to reduce smoking rates and pursuing our ambition to be smoke-free by 2030, we will reduce the pressure on the NHS and help people to live healthier lives.”
Pack inserts are already used in other countries – including Canada and Israel, with Australia also announcing its intention to introduce them – and there is evidence that they can be an effective means of encouraging smokers to quit. An evaluation of the policy’s impact in Canada found that almost one in three smokers had read the inserts at least once in the past month, and that those who were exposed to the inserts multiple times were significantly more likely to try to give up smoking.
Deborah Arnott, Chief Executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH), said: “Smoking is very addictive, and it takes smokers on average 30 attempts before they succeed in stopping, so encouraging them to keep on trying is vital.
“Pack inserts do this by backing up the grim messages about death and disease on the outside with the best advice about how to quit on the inside.”
The tobacco inserts consultation, which is published on GOV.UK on 14 August will run until 10 October 2023. The initial report on the major conditions strategy will be published on GOV.UK on 14 August. The final strategy will be published in 2024.
