That takes a little of the gloss off the Budget. My local health authority is one of the lowest funded in the Trent region and the country. We have considered tobacco smuggling, about which I shall speak shortly. My area has high rates of lung cancer, stroke and heart disease. Reducing tobacco consumption is therefore vital.
Tobacco use is detrimental to health with significant wider social costs.
However, as the hon. Member for North Dorset pointed out clearly and in considerable detail, that policy has been undermined to some extent by the number of cigarettes brought in from abroad. There are areas in my constituency where retailers, tobacconists and newsagents cannot sell legal cigarettes. The amount of smuggling that goes on in those areas makes it unprofitable for them to continue selling certain types of cigarette, if not all cigarettes. When I go out and about in my constituency, retailers, tobacconists and newsagents constantly complain that they cannot sell cigarettes in their area.