Scottish Government

1. In order to undertake or commission work on tobacco-related health issues of specific relevance to Scotland, the existing Tobacco Control Strategy Group will be strengthened and upgraded to a Ministerial Working Group chaired by the Deputy Minister for Health and Community Care. This Group will provide expert advice on the health impact of tobacco and provide a forum for the dissemination of best practice to health and other professionals throughout Scotland.

2. In consultation with the new Ministerial Working Group, we will commission a review of current national communication and education programmes and build any learning into the development of a coherent, integrated long-term communications strategy to guide future prevention activity at national and local levels.

3. In partnership with NHS Health Scotland, we will commission further research with young people to provide a clearer picture of the factors that lead them to start or resist smoking and track awareness of the dangers of smoking and passive smoking amongst key target groups.

4. We will allocate additional funding to smoking cessation services of 1 million in 2003/04, 1 million in 2004/05 and 5 million in 2005/06. Using the Revised Smoking Cessation Guidelines and the Smoking Atlas of Scotland, which are due to be published by the end of March 2004, NHS Boards should assess local needs, identify gaps and develop plans to fill these gaps.

5. We will take steps to further develop the evidence base for effective cessation services through increased investment in the Partnership Action on Tobacco and Health (PATH). The findings of the review report should be used to inform the priorities for this increased investment.

6. We will negotiate and agree cessation targets with each NHS Board by the end of July 2004. As part of this process we will work with NHS Boards, ISD and PATH to introduce reliable baseline measures and develop outcome based measures for future use.

7. In 2004, we will sponsor a major public debate on actions to minimise the impact of second-hand smoke. This will involve a range of conventional and innovative opportunities to contribute to the dialogue, including a major conference to provide acknowledged experts with the opportunity to put their messages across to the people of Scotland.

8. We will work with partners including NHS Health Scotland to develop and deploy a national advertising and communications campaign about the dangers of second-hand smoke.

9. We will review our own current staff smoking policy, which permits smoking only in designated smoking areas, with staff representative bodies, with a view to introducing a complete smoking ban by the end of July 2004.

10. As part of efforts to facilitate 'healthy working lives', we will challenge employers, trade unions, voluntary groups and representative organisations to encourage and support the introduction of effective smoking polices by all Scottish employers.

11. NHS Boards and local authorities will be encouraged to review their smoking policies by the end of 2004 in the light of guidance available from Health Scotland, ASH Scotland and CoSLA.

12. The results of the test purchasing pilot scheme will be carefully considered by the Lord Advocate in order to assess whether the test purchasing arrangements are sufficiently safe, effective and fair to allow the revised prosecution policy adopted for the pilot to remain in place or be extended.

13. In light of the decision on test purchasing, we will agree an enforcement protocol with our local authority partners to guide more effective enforcement of the Children and Young Persons (Protection from Tobacco) Act 1991. We will also look for ways to raise awareness about illegal sales and to encourage the public to report retailers who sell cigarettes to under-16s.

14. We will continue to support the roll out across Scotland of the Dialogue Youth project and associated Young Scot card which provides amongst other things proof of age and to work with Young Scot, the Scottish Retail Consortium, CoSLA and the Society of Chief Officers of Trading Standards in Scotland to encourage support of the card, including by retailers.

15. We will make subordinate legislation in the Scottish Parliament to deploy the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002.

16. We will establish, in partnership with the UK Government, appropriate arrangements to monitor the Tobacco Advertising and Promotion Act 2002 and act to close any loopholes which are identified. This will include monitoring of remaining marketing activity, including point-of-sale publicity, distribution strategies, pack design, new product development and corporate social responsibility campaigns.

17. We will continue to work closely with the UK Government to promote tobacco control policies at UK and international level.

18. NHS Boards should have a broad-based programme of tobacco control action which will be monitored through the Performance Assessment Framework.

19. To reflect the action in this plan, the Scottish Executive will increase its existing target for smoking rates amongst adults (aged 16-64) to 29% by 2010. We confirm our commitment to reducing smoking amongst young people (aged 13-15) to 12% in 2005 and 11% by 2010 and reducing the proportion of women who smoke in pregnancy to 23% in 2005 and 20% in 2010.

20. The new Ministerial Working Group will review these targets in 2004 following the publication of the Smoking Atlas of Scotland and the latest results from the Scottish Health Survey, Scottish Household Survey and surveys of Scottish school children. This will allow us to consider the potential for targets based on specific areas or demographic groups. In the meantime, NHS Boards and their health improvement partners should set local milestones as a stepped process towards meeting national targets.