Written question asked by Ashok Kumar (Labour) on Monday, 9 June 2003, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Friday, 20 June 2003. It was answered by Melanie Johnson (Labour) on Friday, 20 June 2003 on behalf of the Department of Health.

Dept of Health

Question: To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what estimate he has made of the number of women aged under 30, who are non smokers; what the figure was (a) five years and (b) 10 years ago; and if he will make a statement. - Inc table. (Holding answer 12 June 2003).

Answer: Dr. Kumar: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what estimate he has made of the number of women aged under 30 who are smokers; what the figure was (a) five years and (b) 10 years ago; and if he will make a statement. [118803] Miss Melanie Johnson :[holding answer 12 June 2003]: The available data are shown in the table. Prevalence of cigarette smoking among women aged 16 to 29, England, 1992, 1998 and 2001 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Cigarette smoking status Current cigarette smoker (percentage) 1992 33 1998 35 2001 34 _________________________________________________________________________________________________. Notes: 1. Up until 2000, data on smoking prevalence from the General Household Survey were only available every two years. 2. Data for 1998 and 2001 were weighted to compensate for under- representation of people in some groups: data for 1992, which were based on unweighted data, are not therefore directly comparable. Source: Office for National Statistics: General Household Survey 2001, published as "Living in Britain: Results from the 2001 General Household Survey". Available from the internet at: http:// www.statistics.gov.uk/lib2001/index.html

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