Doncaster Council approves funding to create “smokefree generation”

Cabinet accepted £499,326 from the Department for Health and Social Care to roll out the ‘Stopping the Start’ scheme in the borough.

Funding will be used to support programmes to stop smoking, increased regulation on vape sales and a staggered rise in the legal age to buy tobacco.

The legal age to buy tobacco products will increase each year, preventing sale to anyone born on or after 1 January 2009.

Schemes will include the introduction of free e-cigarettes for adults aiming to quit smoking and financial incentives for pregnant smokers to quit.

The sale of vapes will also be targeted, with aims to reduce their appeal and availability to children.

Vape flavours, packaging and point of sale displays will become regulated to reduce their appeal.

Presenting the scheme, Mayor Ros Jones highlighted that smoking is the main cause of death in the UK, with two in three people who smoke dying from a smoking related illness.

A 2022 study by Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) and the Office for National Statistics (ONS) found that 30,200 adults in Doncaster smoke tobacco.

The figure marks a reduction from 19.6 percent to 12.4 percent of adults since 2021.

Smoking rates in Doncaster had remained static for seven years prior to 2021, meaning that smoking rates are declining on a rapid short-term basis.

Despite this, the reduction is not in line with the average number of people quitting smoking nationally.