A scathing report on the tobacco industry from the Commons health select committee has condemned the government for failing to match antismoking rhetoric with action.

The report into the industry and the health risks of smoking says the targets for cutting the number of smokers set in the 1998 white paper Smoking Kills are too low. They include goals to reduce adult smoking from 28 per cent to 24 per cent by 2010 and child smoking from 13 per cent to 9 per cent.

'We do not regard (these) as sufficiently challenging to justify the Department of Health's rhetoric that it is for the first time tackling smoking seriously, ' says the unanimous cross-party report.

But public health minister Yvette Cooper ignored the criticism in her response, claiming the government had 'launched the biggest programme of any European country to reduce smoking and help smokers who want to give up'.

The committee calls for a tobacco regulation authority to help in policy development and also for six weeks of nicotine replacement therapy on the NHS, rather than one.

The Tobacco Industry and the Health Risks of Smoking: report and proceedings of the committee. The Stationery Office.£11.50.

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