BHF responds to the Spring Budget

Today’s measures designed to reduce the harm caused by tobacco and restrict the access that young people and non-smokers have to e-cigarettes or vapes are welcome. 

Smoking accounts for 15,000 deaths from heart and circulatory disease in the UK each year. The rise in tobacco duty will limit its affordability and show the Government is serious about reaching its bold ambition to create the first smoke-free generation. 

We also support a tax on e-cigarettes, which will make them less accessible to children and young people, as well as enabling Border Force and HMRC to better deal with illegal vapes. We look forward to the Tobacco and Vapes Bill bringing further measures to reduce the appeal of e-cigarettes to children. 

The tax should be carefully designed to ensure that e-cigarettes can still be accessed by those who find them helpful to quit smoking, which is the best thing they can do for their heart health. 

E-cigarettes can be a useful tool to help smokers quit, but they are not risk-free and should not be used by those who have never smoked, and especially not by children. More research is needed on the long-term impact of vaping on your heart and blood vessels.  

It was disappointing not to see the Government announce any plans to address stubbornly high obesity levels which are another key driver of heart disease. This was a missed opportunity to build on the success of the Soft Drinks Industry Levy and incentivise further reformulation of unhealthy food and drinks. 

The lack of increased funding for the Public Health Grant, which helps fund vital services like stop smoking support and NHS health checks, was also disappointing.   

We’re delighted to see Government commit £45m to support Early Career Researchers (ECRs) through the Early Career Researchers Support Fund, recognising the value of this continued partnership with medical research charities.    

By providing over £100m of funding over three years, this support will bolster our ability to fund excellent research talent while they grow their careers, delivering some of the best and most impactful research charities enable.  

This Budget was also an opportunity for new long-term, ambitious research and development (R&D) investment targets to be set. It was disappointing to see Government not seize this opportunity. Without these, UK Government will struggle to drive forward its science superpower ambitions. 
 

The announced NHS productivity plan will include targeted funding for IT systems and modernisation in the NHS as part of a pledge to increase productivity across the health service.  
 
We know that speeding up slow administrative processes in the NHS is a positive move for staff, but remain concerned that this will fail to solve the wider workforce shortages that contribute to long waiting times for heart care.   

It is disappointing not to see the Government announce more comprehensive support for our struggling health system. The dangerous waits heart patients are experiencing for time critical care are far too long and the backlog of care is still growing. 

While overall waiting lists have recently modestly declined, cardiac waiting lists buck the trend and continue to increase, with over 400,000 people waiting for cardiac care in England.

 

Heart patients need to hear from the Government how they will get the care they need on time, whether that’s an ambulance for a heart attack or medication that could help them avoid a future heart attack or stroke.  

 
To stop the heart care crisis in its tracks, we need to see bold action across all three of these fronts: the better prevention of heart disease and stroke, the prioritisation of NHS heart care, and the supercharging of cardiovascular research to unlock groundbreaking new treatments and cures.    

Our Chief Executive, Dr Charmaine Griffiths, said: “It’s shocking that tobacco still accounts for 15,000 deaths from cardiovascular disease every year in the UK. We welcome the measures announced today to reduce the utterly unacceptable harm caused by tobacco and to make sure that vapes are out of reach for young people. The UK Government must now ensure there are no further delays to the introduction of the Tobacco and Vapes Bill which will raise the age of the sale of tobacco. 

“We’re delighted to see the Government back medical research charities through its Early Career Researchers Support Fund. This will bolster our ability to fund the best cardiovascular researchers as they grow their careers, supporting the long-term development of our life saving research in the best interests of patients. 

“However, today's Budget was a missed opportunity to comprehensively address the extreme and ongoing disruption to heart care. Heart patients need reassurance their care will be delivered on time, and it’s disappointing not to see the Government prioritise this critical task.”