· urgently invest £ 125M per year in interventions to reach smokefree 2030 ,
The Khan Review also wants the legal smoking age raised every year until nobody is allowed to buy cigarettes .
This would mean that anyone aged 14 or under today , could NEVER legally buy a cigarette .
· raise age of sale of tobacco by one year , every year ,
· offer vaping as a substitute for smoking , alongside accurate information on the benefits of switching , including to healthcare professionals and
Dr Javed Khan , the former chief executive of children ’ s charity Barnardo ’ s , said his recommendations must be implemented in full to make smoking obsolete by 2040 .
· ensure that the NHS prioritises prevention , takes further action to stop people smoking and provides support and treatment across all its services , including primary care .
He also wants to bring back ‘ stop smoking ’ messages , to be shown on TV , radio and on social media platforms and says the NHS must do more to help smokers quit .
He stressed without action now , another half a million smokers would die by 2030 , saying the country needed a ‘ cultural shift ’ so that nobody wanted to buy cigarettes anymore .
He called for an annual £ 125 million investment package – ideally funded by the tobacco industry - to ensure that the government meets its smokefree goals .
Khan said : “ I don ’ t care how the money is found , but it has to be found and has to be found quickly .
“ There can be no shortcuts , quick fixes or excuses and I urge the government to seize this moment and fully commit to making smoking obsolete .”
Launching his report via a YouTube livestream he said : “ In the past few years smoking has been more deadly than COVID and costs society about £ 17bn a year .
“ In the wake of the current cost of living crisis , smoking is a financially draining addiction . Making smoking obsolete in England would lift around 2.6 million adults and one million children out of poverty .
He warned that without further action , the nation would exceed its smokefree targets by ‘ at least seven years ’, with society ’ s poorest areas failing to get there until 2044 . Khan highlighted four critical ‘ must do ’ areas and called on the government to :
Khan urged the government to commit to a new ambition of making smoking obsolete by 2040 .
He said it was important to make the UK ‘ the least attractive and least profitable place ’ for the tobacco industry to do business so that it could no longer ‘ prey on children and young people .’
Khan said : “ Smoking kills and ruins lives and we should not settle for anything less than a truly smokefree generation for our young people .”
Referring to vaping he said : “ Healthcare professionals I spoke to , at the very top of their fields from across the world , say vaping is much safer than cigarettes and should be recommended .
“ Research also shows that vaping is an extremely effective quit tool , so in our efforts to help smokers quit and dramatically reduce the risks of cancer , heart disease and strokes , it has to be an option .”
He called for a ban on cartoon characters and images that appealed to children on e-liquid packaging so that vaping remained ‘ a quit tool and not a cool tool .’
Critical recommendations - ‘ must dos ’’
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