Vision: The North East will reduce its overall smoking prevalence to the lowest in the country and will narrow the gap in smoking prevalence between social groups.

The Regional Advisory Group for Tobacco Control will be the Steering Group of FRESH: Smokefree North East.

• We will undertake research on reducing the supply of smuggled and counterfeit tobacco products.
• We will study and assess the added value of regional tobacco campaigns.
• Regional activity will continue to be coordinated by FRESH: Smoke-free North East.
• We will establish regional standards for quantity and quality levels of Stop Smoking Service provision that require the less well performing areas to increase their activity to match those achieved by the best, and to continue improvement in all services to ensure that those in the North East continue to be the most effective in the country.
• We will publicise and reinforce the messages behind recent legislation on smoking to maximise and maintain its benefits.
• We will undertake a broader marketing campaign to highlight the dangers to babies of smoking during and after pregnancy.
• We will lobby and campaign on content of cigarettes and the availability of tobacco for other uses such as chewing.
• We will lobby to ensure that the UK adopts Reduced Ignition Propensity (RIP) cigarettes, to reduce the risk of smoking-related fires.
• We will lobby for emphasis through the Quality Outcomes Framework on recording smokingstatus.
• We will establish a regional smoking prevalence target – aiming for an overall regional prevalence of no more than 23% by the end of 2010, of 20% or a level below the national average by 2015 and an absolute level of only 10% by 2032. These targets will be measured against registration of smoking status by GPs in their practice registers, with an appropriate region-wide quality control standard for registration.
• We will collate on a six-monthly basis statistics on smoking in pregnancy in the region.
• We will establish a regional target for reduction of lung cancer deaths as a long-term indicator of progress on tobacco.
• We will formally assess regional smoking action to test for added value over and above implementation elsewhere in the country.
• We will report specifically on rates of smoking in pregnancy and progress to reduce these.

Potential areas of action for RAG consideration: Age-specific targets – Identifying reasons for the excess of female smoking in the North East