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** 6 February 2023
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** UK
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** UK review of EU laws expanded after 1,000 pieces of legislation added (#1)
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** Local public health services at risk amid funding uncertainty (#2)
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** Elf Bar found in breach of 2ml liquid volume limit for vape tanks (#3)
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** Cradle to grave: can the NHS be fixed? (#4)
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** Parliamentary activity
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** Parliamentary question (#5)
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** UK
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** UK review of EU laws expanded after 1,000 pieces of legislation added
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** A government plan to review or revoke all EU laws left on the UK statute book by the end of 2023 became tougher on Monday 30^th January after the government announced that another 1,000 pieces of legislation had been added to the pile scheduled for reform.
In an update to its “dashboard” of leftover EU laws, the government said the number of pieces of legislation covering more than 400 unique policy areas now came to 3,700. It also admitted the list was not exhaustive and would need to be updated quarterly as more laws were discovered.
The plan to review so much law, so quickly, has attracted fierce criticism from business groups, legal experts, trade unions and environmental groups. They warn that rushing the review will create costly and destabilising legal uncertainty.
The expansion of the list was caused in part by the discovery last December of 1,400 additional pieces of EU legislation in the National Archives. A “sunset clause” in the Retained EU Law (Revocation and Reform) Bill 2022, which is in the House of Lords, will also mean that any EU law that has not been reviewed by the end of 2023 will automatically fall off the statute book unless saved.
Source: Financial Times, 30 January 2023
Editorial note: The Retained EU Law Bill could have a significant impact on tobacco control as EU-derived legislation includes regulation of e-cigarettes and cigarette health warnings.
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** Local public health services at risk amid funding uncertainty
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** Drug and alcohol treatment, tackling obesity and health visiting are among the vital frontline services at risk of being cut back or closing altogether, unless government urgently sets out public health funding for the next year.
The Local Government Association, which represents councils across England, is calling on the Government to urgently publish the Public Health Grant funding allocations which councils will receive from April with time running out for councils to set budgets and spending plans and to make critical decisions on renewing contracts for vital public health services.
A lack of certainty around councils’ public health funding this year is exacerbating existing challenges as demand for support services has risen, such as for sexual health services or drug and addiction support. The LGA said this is leaving these vital services facing an uncertain future and risks people being forced to go without crucial help and support. It also comes as public health funding grants to councils have been reduced by over £1 billion in real terms from 2015/16 to 2021/22. As pressures on the NHS and social care systems mount, councils are urging the Government to invest in local public health services which can help to reduce challenges on other parts of the health and care system.
Cllr David Baines, Vice-Chair of the LGA’s Community Wellbeing Board, said:
“Demand for vital treatment including mental health support was high before the pandemic. In the aftermath of COVID-19, it is even more urgent that these services are properly funded. Councils are currently in the dark about public health funding and this can’t go on. Residents and our communities need clarity. Every pound invested by government in council-run services such as public health helps to relieve pressure on other services like the NHS and the criminal justice system. The Government needs to give councils the clarity they need so they can increase investment to protect the health of our local communities over the coming months and years and to ensure all local authorities can continue to meet their public health responsibilities into the future.”
Source: Local Government Association, 3 February 2023
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** Elf Bar found in breach of 2ml liquid volume limit for vape tanks
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** The company behind Britain's best-selling vape has admitted "inadvertently" breaking the law after a Daily Mail investigation found its products exceed maximum liquid levels.
Chinese vaping giant Elf Bar “wholeheartedly apologized” after independent lab tests by the Mail found its ‘600’ line of e-cigarettes were at least 50% over the legal limit for e-liquid.
The amount of e-liquid in a vape is legally limited in the UK to 2ml, of which the maximum nicotine strength should be 2%. Trading Standards warned this strict 2ml limit must not be exceeded without exception.
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “Local enforcement agencies are responsible for enforcing these regulations and taking action against non-compliant products including products that do not comply with the 2ml limits.”
Source: Daily Mail, 6 February 2023
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** Cradle to grave: can the NHS be fixed?
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** Writing for the Financial Times, Sarah Neville, Peter Foster, Ella Hollowood and Federica Cocco discuss the need for more investment in preventative care, to ease pressure on the NHS long-term.
The authors state, that whilst, “It is easy to point to the progressive loss of capacity during the past 30 years as the root of much of the NHS’s problems […] Many experts believe that the single biggest imperative facing the system is to improve preventive care, forestalling conditions or treating them at an earlier stage before they require an expensive hospital admission.”
The authors speak with Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK, who argues that whilst, “the UK entered the pandemic at or near the bottom of a league table of comparable countries in relation to one- and five-year survival rates for multiple cancers […] the country has been unable to capitalise as it might otherwise have done on some of the extraordinary breakthroughs in cancer treatment of recent years, [through] a failure to develop long-term workforce planning and capital funding for diagnostics in a golden era for cancer research when we should have been able to translate the brilliant research and science for patients more quickly”.
Source: Financial Times, 6 February 2023
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** Parliamentary activity
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** Parliamentary question
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**
PQ1: Tobacco
Asked by Rachael Maskell, Labour, York Central
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, for what reason he has not published an updated Tobacco Control Plan; and whether it is his policy to introduce an updated Tobacco Control Plan.
Answered by Neil O'Brien, Minister for Primary Care and Public Health
We are still considering the recommendations made in ‘The Khan review: making smoking obsolete' and further information will be available in due course.
Source: Hansard, 2 February 2023
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