Department of Health and Social Care written question – answered at on 20 May 2024.
Alexander Stafford
Conservative, Rother Valley
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the number of hospital admissions for issues related to pipe smoking in the last (a) 12 months, (b) five years and (c) 20 years.
Alexander Stafford
Conservative, Rother Valley
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will make an estimate of the annual cost to the NHS of pipe smoking.
Andrea Leadsom
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health and Social Care
Tobacco is responsible for approximately 80,000 deaths a year in the United Kingdom, and causes approximately one in four UK cancer deaths. It also costs our country £21.8 billion a year and puts a huge burden on the National Health Service. Latest estimates from Action on Smoking and Health put the cost of smoking to the NHS and social care at £3 billion a year.
All smoked tobacco is extremely harmful, including pipe smoking. Smoking is the main driver for conditions such as lung cancer and severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, and is a major factor for others such as premature cardiovascular disease.
Data from the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities Smoking Profile showed that in 2019/20 there were an estimated 448,031 smoking attributable hospital admissions, but we cannot differentiate by the type of tobacco. As such, the Department does not hold data on the annual costs to the NHS of pipe smoking, nor data on the number of hospital admissions for issues related to pipe smoking in the last 12 months, five years, or 20 years.
Yes4 people think so
No4 people think not
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Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.