Health Policy Report: Impact of Smoking Reduction Policy in UK

This report delves into the 'Smoking in Public Places' health policy in the UK, examining its development, implementation, and impact on public health. The report begins by providing an overview of the health issue of reducing smoking, highlighting its prevalence and the substantial strain it places on the NHS. It then details the evolution of the policy, including the Health Act 2006 and subsequent regulations. The core of the report analyzes the policy's impact, citing statistics on reduced smoking rates, decreased respiratory illnesses, and fewer heart attacks. The report also explores the changing landscape of pubs and the public's increasing support for the ban. The analysis concludes that the policy has been effective in decreasing the number of smokers and improving public health, while also acknowledging the need for further support systems for smokers. The report references multiple sources including NHS Digital, Office for National Statistics, and The Lancet Public Health.

Running head: HEALTH POLICY
Health and Social Care
Reducing Smoking
3-31-2020

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Table of Contents
Introduction................................................................................................................................2
Overview of Health Issue (Reducing Smoking).....................................................................2
Development and Implementation of Smoking in the public places policy.......................4
Impact of the Policy and Its implementation on Target Population...................................5
Conclusion..................................................................................................................................6
References..................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The aim of this report is to present a paper discussing a health policy for a health issue that is
reducing smoking. The report is providing a detailed analysis of the policy as well as the
health issue and the progress that has been made through this policy.
One of the health policies that are related to reducing smoking is “Smoking in the public
places”. Under the Health Act 2006, a regulation was introduced that was related to banning
smoking in the force in England in the year 2007. Almost all surrounded and considerably
enclosed workplaces and other public places including public transport and work vehicles and
company cars are part of this policy. After this, there is a new regulation that was introduced
in the year 2015, which highlights that smoking in a private vehicle with children is against
the law. As per the new plan of tobacco control, it has been highlighted that in spite of this
rule, around a quarter of people lie under the age group of 16-24 years are being exposed to
second-hand smoke. For addressing this issue, the plan focusses on supporting the local
regions to execute smoke-free policies all over in the hospitals and prisons in England
(Anyanwu, Craig, Katikireddi and Green, 2018).
Overview of Health Issue (Reducing Smoking)
Tobacco smoking in the UK is predominant among a sizeable, but unceasingly decreasing
minority of the population. In the country, smoking is permitted legally, but is the imposition
of some conditions and policies and based in the location from the bans passed separately in
Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England (Arnott, Dockrell and Sandford, 2007). It has
been observed that smoking puts substantial stress on the NHS because of the health issues
that are directly related to smoking. Successive government of the United Kingdom has tried
to decrease the incidence of smoking. Besides this, the NHS is presently offering free help
services for smokers who desire to quit it.

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As per the estimation presented by Cancer Research UK, reveals that smoking is the greatest
cause of the illness and early death with over 107,000 people died in the year 2007 due to
diseases related to smoking like cancer in the United Kingdom. There were over 86% of the
death due to lung cancer in the country that was caused by the intake of tobacco smoking and
overall smoking is projected to be accountable for a quarter of deaths due to cancer in the
UK, with over 43000 deaths in the year 2007 (NHS Digital, 2007).
As per the analysis presented by the British Medical Journal, it has been identified that to
help smokers in quitting smoking, Britain has achieved the maximum number of reductions
in death due to lung cancer. As per the records, the death due to lung cancer was higher in the
United Kingdom during 1950.
Decreasing the smoking prevalence of smoking to over 5% can help in preventing around
100,000 new cases related to diseases like cancer caused by smoking (Office for National
Statistics, 2019).
Furthermore, as per the estimates presented by the office of national statistics 2019, it has
been identified that there are 14.7% of the people who are at age of 18 and above smoked
cigarettes in the year 2018, which is equal to the people of over 7.2 million in the entire
population and shows a major decline of around 5% points since 2011 (Office for National
Statistics, 2019). Besides this, the analysis has also revealed that there were around 14.4% of
the adults in England who smoked, 16.3% in Scotland, 15.5% in Northern Ireland, and 15.9%
in Wales. In the United Kingdom, there were 13% of women smoke whereas there are 16.5%
of men smoke. In addition to this, the people who lie in the age group of 25 to 34 years are
the highest portion of the population who smoke (Office for National Statistics, 2019).

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Development and Implementation of Smoking in the public places policy
The powers in the initial part (part one) of the Health Act 2006 about the smoke-free parts are
majorly regulation that makes powers. There were some provisions that came into existence
in Wales in the year 2007 for executing a ban on smoking.
Afterward in the year 2012, a new regulation came into existence that was the Smoke-Free
(Signs) Regulations 2012. This rule replaced and revoked the preceding regulation related to
the Smoke-free (Signs) which was introduced in the year 2006. The major difference in this
new regulation is that there must be at least one readable sign of no-smoking should be
displayed in the smoke-free vehicles and areas, but the managers and owners have the power
to decide the design, location, and size of the signs (Visit Britain, 2020).
Finally, a new regulation came into existence in the year 2015 when MPs of the country
voted under the favor of this new regulation that was followed from the 1st of October 2015.
The regulation was the Smoke-free (Private Vehicles) Regulations 2015. There was a major
update in this regulation as it was related to smoking in the vehicle carrying children. If the
age of the children is under 18, then a person is not allowed to smoke in the private vehicle
too (Department of Health, 2019). Those who do not comply with the regulation will be
considered to committing an illegal crime and is liable to submit a fixed amount as a penalty
that is of £50 (The Lancet Public Health, 2020).
The institutions that are involved in this policy of Smoking at the public place are prisons and
penal institutions. The habit of smoking among the prisoners is said to be high. It is expected
that prisons and the MOD estate, are not included in the Bill, but will accept the possible
measures as per their spirit. Besides this, it has been believed that smoking is the entrenched
cultural feature in the service of prison. Tobacco access is considered to be the treat in place
of a right, but this enables it to be adopted as the discipline. While the services at Prison focus

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on ensuring that non-smokers must be placed at a different place from the smokers, but due to
overcrowding, this is not always possible (House of Commons Health Committee, 2006).
Impact of the Policy and Its implementation on Target Population
The time Smoking at Public Place has introduced people expected that it will not just help
smokers to reduce their usage of cigarettes that can reduce the chances of illness that occur
due to smoking, but it will also help in reducing the pollution from the air.
As per the analysis presented by Centre for Public Impact, it has been revealed that after the
policy implementation and the ban of smoking in its first 18 months, 98.2% of the places
were identified to be compliant (Bauld, 2011). It resulted in reducing the respiratory illness
cases informed by the workers. The research has also revealed that the entry to hospitals for
the cases related to heart attacks has reduced in number which is around 2.4% instantly due to
the change in the law that is equal to the 1,200 fewer cases of heart attacks every year (Centre
for Public Impact, 2020).
In addition to this, the smoker’s number in the United Kingdom has also decreased, with less
than 15% of the people are involved in smoking in the year 2019, in comparison to 22% in
2006 (Centre for Public Impact, 2020). The reason behind this is the ban on smoking is yet
debatable but is it being expected that ban is a major contributor to the decreasing smoker’s
number.
As per the survey conducted in 2017 by YouGov, it was highlighted that the increasing
support for smoking ban policy with around 83% provides their support for the ban as
compared to the data of 2007 which was 78% (Centre for Public Impact, 2020). This has been
believed that this change was major because of the more and more smokers are providing
their support to the ban.

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It becomes very tough to distinct the longer-term influence of the ban on smoking in England.
As per the report of BBC, evaluating the complete influence of the smoking ban on the health
of people will take some time, because decreasing lung cancer rate will be revealed in the
coming years (Anyanwa, Craig, Karikireddi and Green, 2018).
Furthermore, in the UK the number of pubs has decreased after the smoking ban, with around
7,000 pubs out of 56,000 closed between the period of 2007 and 2015. But it is tough to
determine that the closure of pub is because of the ban, or the 2007 financial crisis, or the
attitude of people is changing towards drinking or any other factor. But it has revealed that
the landscape of pub has been changed with the smoking ban because they have now become
family-friendly and are somewhat similar to restaurants, because of changing business model
for surviving in the market. In the present scenario, the UK is placed at the forefront in terms
of tobacco policy (Centre for Public Impact, 2020).
Conclusion
From the above analysis, it can be concluded that Smoking at public place policy has worked
for the people of the United Kingdom has it has supported in decreasing the number of
smokers from the market. This has not just supported in changing their habit but has also
supported in decreasing the number of illness due to smoking. In addition to this, the smoking
ban has also led to a change in the landscape of pubs in the United Kingdom because they
have now become family-friendly like restaurants. This has been achieved because, with the
smoking ban, they were supposed to survive in the market due to which they were forced to
change their business model.
In the future, the possible development that can be made in this policy is to introduce and
prepare some institutions that can provide support to smokers to drop their smoking habit and
focus on living a healthy life.

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References
Anyanwu, E.P., Craig, P., Katikireddi, V.S., and Green, J.M. (2018) Impacts of smoke-free
public places legislation on inequalities in youth smoking uptake: study protocol for a
Secondary analysis of UK survey data [online]. Available from
https://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/bmjopen/8/3/e022490.full.pdf [accessed 31 March 2020]
Anyanwa, E.P., Craig, P., Karikireddi, V.S., and Green, J.M. (2018) Impacts of smoke-free
public places legislation on inequalities in youth smoking uptake: study protocol for a
secondary analysis of UK survey data. BMJ Open, 8(3).
Arnott, D., Dockrell, M., and Sandford, A. (2007) Comprehensive smoke‐free legislation in
England: how advocacy won the day. Tobacco Control, 16(6), 423-458.
Bauld, L. (2011) The impact of smoke-free legislation in England: evidence review [online].
Available from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/
attachment_data/file/216319/dh_124959.pdf [accessed 1 April 2020]
Centre for Public Impact (2020) Smoking ban in the United Kingdom [online]. Available
from https://www.centreforpublicimpact.org/case-study/smoking-ban-united-kingdom/
[accessed 1 April 2020]
Department of Health (2019) Smoking in private vehicles carrying children - consultation on
proposed regulations to be made under the Children and Families Act 2014 [online].
Available from https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/
attachment_data/file/329885/Smoking_in_cars_carrying_children.pdf [accessed 1 April
2020]

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House of Commons Health Committee (2006) Smoking in Public Places [online]. Available
from https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200506/cmselect/cmhealth/485/485.pdf
[accessed 1 April 2020]
NHS Digital (2007) Statistics on Smoking - England, 2007 [online]. Available from
https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/statistics-on-smoking/
statistics-on-smoking-england-2007 [accessed 31 March 2020]
Office for National Statistics (2019) Adult smoking habits in the UK: 2018 [online].
Available from
https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/healthandsocialcare/
healthandlifeexpectancies/bulletins/adultsmokinghabitsingreatbritain/2018 [accessed 31
March 2020]
The Lancet Public Health (2020) Summary [online]. Available from
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(19)30175-6/fulltext
[accessed 1 April 2020]
Visit Britain (2020) Smoking in public places [online]. Available from
https://www.visitbritain.org/business-advice/smoking-public-places [accessed 31 March
2020]