Cancer Research Report on Smoking Prevalence

That the Parliament recognises the recent report published by Cancer Research UK on smoking prevalence projections across the UK, which it understands finds that if current trends continue, the Scottish Government will miss its target to see a tobacco-free generation by 2034, and will not meet this until after 2050; notes that Cancer Research UK projections suggest that Scotland’s least deprived quintile could achieve the Scottish Government’s tobacco-free generation target in 2034, but the most deprived areas will have not reached a smoking rate below 10% by 2050, and considers that urgent action is needed by the Scottish Government to ensure that smoking cessation rates improve, including evaluating the 2018 Tobacco Control Action Plan, ensuring the delivery across each NHS board of structured programmes of recording of smoking status, providing prompt provision of specialist smoking cessation and ongoing support across all healthcare settings and increasing funding for national mass media campaigns to reduce uptake and encourage smokers to quit.