Written question asked by Lord Grayling (Conservative) on Friday, 12 September 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Tuesday, 14 October 2003. It was answered by Melanie Johnson (Labour) on Tuesday, 14 October 2003 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps the Government is taking to increase smoking cessation services to Asian men.

Answer: Chris Grayling: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what steps the Government are taking to increase smoking cessation services to Asian men. [130061] Miss Melanie Johnson: As announced in the NHS Cancer Plan the Department is funding a network of local alliances for action on smoking. These alliances form the bridge between treatment services and local authorities, community groups, businesses, schools, churches etc. and will work with the most deprived sections of their communities to make a difference. Some local alliances, with Asian communities in their areas, are working to raise the awareness of the risk of smoking for example producing materials in ethnic languages, holding events in community centres and encouraging people to use their local cessation services. NHS stop smoking services are now well established across England, and are achieving good results. At a local level the services target their local ethnic minority populations. The services are available to help all smokers who want to stop. The services provide counselling and support to smokers in a variety of settings in primary or secondary care, and in the community, to complement the provision of smoking cessation aids such as nicotine replacement therapy (NRT) and bupropion (Zyban).

Secondary information