Smoking Cessation: PQ: 2007

6 August 2007

Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow Maryhill) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what funding has been provided in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS board area for smoking cessation services in the last three years, in light of recent figures from ASH Scotland which show that Glasgow Maryhill has the third highest smoking rate in Scotland. (S3W-2290)

  • Nicola Sturgeon: Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board came into being in 2006, and it is therefore not possible to give figures for that board for last three years. The following table sets out funding available for smoking cessation services for Greater Glasgow Health Board, Highland Health Board and Argyll and Clyde Health Board (which was subsumed into Greater Glasgow and Highland health boards in 2006) from 2005 to 2007-08

Year

Health Board

Amount

2005-06

Greater Glasgow HB

 £956,000

 

Argyll and Clyde HB

£439,000

 

Highland HB

 £224,000

2006-07

Greater Glasgow HB

£956,000

 

Greater Glasgow Keep Well
smoking cessation
allocation

£800,000

 

Argyll and Clyde HB

£439,000

 

Highland HB

£224,000
2007-08

 

Greater Glasgow and Clyde HB

£2,569,000

 

Greater Glasgow and Clyde
Keep Well
smoking cessation
allocation

£800,000

 

Highland HB

£455,000

Funding allocations for smoking cessation services are agreed by the Scottish Ministerial Working Group on Tobacco Control and include an additional adjustment to take account of social deprivation (which is closely linked to smoking rates) in each health board area.

An uplift of £2 million was allocated to health boards in 2007-08 in order to expand cessation services. In addition to the pro-rata increase this year, Greater Glasgow and Clyde Health Board would have received a further uplift in funding to take account of its share of funding for Clyde area residents, and Highland Health Board has received funding in respect of Argyll residents.
Keep Well aims to increase the rate of health improvement in deprived communities and includes a specific funding stream for smoking cessation activity.

Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow Maryhill) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what future funding will be provided in the Greater Glasgow and Clyde NHS board area for smoking cessation services, in light of recent figures from ASH Scotland which show that Glasgow Maryhill has the third highest smoking rate in Scotland. (S3W-2291)

Nicola Sturgeon: Future funding for NHS boards smoking cessation services is being considered under the current spending review.

Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow Maryhill) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action will be taken to prevent underage smokers buying cigarettes, in light of recent figures from ASH Scotland which show that 82% of 15-year-olds and 47% of 13-year-olds in the Glasgow Maryhill parliamentary constituency who smoke regularly report buying cigarettes from a shop. (S3W-2292)

Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Government is committed to a zero tolerance approach to underage sales. We have been working in partnership with all 32 local authorities to introduce a Scotland-wide national entitlement card that includes accreditation under the British Retail Consortium’s Proof of Age Standards Scheme which will enable retailers to operate a "no proof, no sale policy".

In addition the change in Scottish prosecution policy in 2005 to allow evidence from test purchasing of age restricted goods to be admissible in court means that local authority trading standards departments have an additional useful tool to combat underage sales.

Furthermore, I intend to publish a five-year Smoking Prevention Action Plan by Spring 2008 which will cover targets to reduce smoking among young people; reducing availability of tobacco to young people; discouraging young people from smoking and enabling young regular smokers to stop.

Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow Maryhill) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what action will be taken to discourage underage smoking, in light of recent figures from ASH Scotland which show 82% of 15-year-olds and 47% of 13-year-olds in the Glasgow Maryhill parliamentary constituency who smoke regularly report buying cigarettes from a shop. (S3W-2293)

Nicola Sturgeon: The Scottish Government is committed to reducing the incidence of smoking among children and young people. The smoke-free legislation is, of course, expected to drive cultural change by making smoking less attractive to young people and we acted quickly to reinforce the dangers associated with smoking by laying legislation to raise the age of purchase for tobacco products from 16 to 18 with effect 1 October 2007. We now propose to build upon the achievements made in reducing the incidence of smoking among young people by publishing a comprehensive five-year Smoking Prevention Action Plan by Spring 2008. This plan will set out new targets for reducing smoking among young people and outline a range of measures to underpin this including to reduce the availability of tobacco to underage young people through stricter enforcement of the law; to discourage young people from smoking; and to enable young regular smokers to stop.

Patricia Ferguson (Glasgow Maryhill) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what the smoking rate was for those aged 16 and over in each of the last three years in the Glasgow Maryhill parliamentary constituency. (S3W-2294)

Nicola Sturgeon: The information requested is not available for single years. The preferred source for smoking prevalence data is the Scottish Household Survey. The sample is drawn such that results are available at Scotland level on an annual basis and at local authority level for the two year periods 1999-2000, 2001-2002, 2003-2004 and 2005-2006.

The sample sizes for Glasgow Maryhill parliamentary constituency over the two year periods are reasonable, but the survey is not designed to give representative results at parliamentary constituency level. Therefore, the figures presented below should be interpreted with caution.
Scotland level figures for the same two year periods are included as a reference.

Smoking prevalence (adults aged 16+) in Glasgow Maryhill Parliamentary Constituency:

Year of survey

Area

% smoking

Base
(weighted sample size)
1999-2000

Glasgow Maryhill

38

397

2001-2002

Glasgow Maryhill

39

388

2003-2004

Glasgow Maryhill

36

312

2005-2006

Glasgow Maryhill

32

441

1999-2000

All Scotland

30

28,333

2001-2002

All Scotland

28

28,663

2003-2004

 All Scotland

27

 28,728

2005-2006

 All Scotland

26

 28,228


Source: Scottish Household Survey.