Member

A “polluter pays” levy would achieve three things. First, it would raise approximately £700 million a year. That money would go to the Treasury and could be used for smoking cessation services that support people to quit, and indeed other health-related matters. In fact, all the Government’s programmes on tobacco, including mass media campaigns, incentives for pregnant women and support for workers with mental health problems, could be funded by that, and there would still be cash to spare for other services. That could go to other public health initiatives to achieve the Government’s aim of halving the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and poorest, which the Minister outlined earlier.