Recommendations | Action Points |
1. The implementation of the UK ban on tobacco advertising in Scotland should be rigorously enforced, systematically and carefully monitored and the legislation amended if necessary to minimise circumventions. | Chapter 6: Protection and controls
Action 16 |
2. The Scottish Executive should develop a comprehensive action plan that sets out an adequately resourced programme of initiatives designed substantially to reduce smoking and tobacco-related harm in Scotland over the next ten years. This should build on the findings and recommendations of the present report and should be integrated with the recently published document
Improving Health in Scotland: the Challenge. The plan should set realistic priorities, outcome targets and timescales. | Tobacco Control Action Plan:
A Breathof Fresh Air for Scotland |
3. The Scottish Executive should establish a standing Advisory Committee on Smoking and Tobacco Control to ensure it has a constant source of expert advice on its Tobacco Control Strategy. This should be organised on the same lines as the Scottish Advisory Committees on Drug Misuse and Alcohol Misuse. | Chapter 2: The approach
Action 1 |
4. There should be explicit recognition at national and local government levels of the importance of action to reduce poverty and social exclusion if tobacco-related harm is to be reduced in the long term. | Reduction of poverty and social inclusion are key components of the Partnership Agreement |
5. The development of future prevention initiatives for young people should be supported by further research designed to provide a clearer view of the factors that influence whether or not young people smoke and of their understanding of the addictiveness of tobacco and other issues such as smoking during pregnancy, passive smoking and the marketing techniques of the tobacco industry. | Chapter 3: Prevention and education
Actions 2 and 3 |
6. Consideration should be given to developing, piloting and evaluating a more intensive, phased approach to smoking prevention at school, starting before the onset of smoking. Smoking prevention should be part of a wider programme that addresses tobacco, alcohol and other drugs within the personal and social education curriculum and should be linked to other tobacco control initiatives within the school and the community. | Chapter 3: Prevention and education
Actions 2 and 3 |
7. Smoking prevention programmes should be designed to ensure they are in tune with the needs and aspirations of both girls and boys, especially those in circumstances of social exclusion and vulnerability. | Chapter 3: Prevention and education
Actions 2 and 3 |
8. The way in which the media are used to influence smoking and tobacco-related knowledge and behaviour should be reassessed to take account of the latest research findings and to exploit the opportunities provided by formats such as reality TV, TV documentaries, chat shows and soaps and teen magazines. | Chapter 3: Prevention and education
Actions 2 and 3 |
9. The Scottish Executive and all NHS Boards should ensure that effective smoking of sufficient size cessation services and variety to meet local needs are available in every area. To achieve this, adequate long-term funding is essential. The assessment of need for services should be based on estimates of the number and profiles of smokers. The type of smoking cessation services provided should reflect the best available evidence for effectiveness and value for money and should be delivered in a number of different settings by appropriately trained staff. | Chapter 4: Provision of smoking cessation services
Actions 4-6 |
10. Smoking cessation services should be designed particularly to help men and women on middle and low incomes of all ages who are moderately or heavily dependent on nicotine and who want to give up. They need to address the particular difficulties faced by people living in areas or circumstances of socio-economic disadvantage. | Chapter 4: Provision of smoking cessation services
Actions 4-6 |
11. Health professionals in both community and hospital based services should be encouraged and enabled as far as possible to play a key role in smoking cessation - either in providing smoking cessation support themselves or in referring patients to appropriate services. | Chapter 4: Provision of smoking cessation services
Actions 4-6 |
12. As a matter of urgency, the Scottish Executive should fund the development and evaluation of initiatives designed to help pregnant women, their partners and parents of young children to stop smoking. This should include qualitative research into the attitudes towards cessation of women who smoke during pregnancy and their partners and research to evaluate the effectiveness, safety and acceptability to women of nicotine replacement therapy in pregnancy. | Chapter 4: Provision of smoking cessation services
Action 5 |
13. Smoking cessation services should specifically address the needs of young smokers, and other groups such as people with mental health problems and members of ethnic minorities. | Chapter 4: Provision of smoking cessation services
Actions 4-6 |
14. All smoking cessation services should be subject to careful evaluation so that the most effective approaches and models of service delivery can be identified and reproduced across the country. This should be coordinated centrally on a national basis to ensure a consistent approach. | Chapter 4: Provision of smoking cessation services
Key role of PATH |
15. PATH should take the lead in coordinating a consistent approach, based on agreed Scottish training standards, to training smoking cessation service staff in the management and provision of smoking cessation services, drawing on developments in England and Wales where appropriate. | Chapter 4: Provision of smoking cessation services
Key role for PATH which is funded by the Executive |
16. All schools in Scotland should be smoke-free zones for everyone as part of the Health Promoting School concept. | Chapter 5: Second-hand smoke
Action 11 |
17. Further steps should be taken to extend smoke-free zones in all enclosed public places, including public transport, shopping centres and premises where food or drink is served. The value of smoke-free environments should be explained in media campaigns. Employers should be encouraged to create smoke-free work environments and provide staff who smoke with the opportunity to attend smoking cessation services and obtain other appropriate support. The need for legislation to achieve these objectives should be carefully considered. | Chapter 5: Second-hand smoke
(passive smoking)
Actions 7-11 |
18. Efforts to enforce the law on the sale of cigarettes to under-16s should be intensified. | Chapter 6: Protection and controls
Actions 12-14 |