Sheila Duffy wants ASH Scotland to be insulated from cuts

Well she would, wouldn't she? She wants to be assured that we don't get carried away by short-term concerns (life-saving treatments for example, crisis accommodation perhaps or investment in protection against STDs?) because smoking prevention is so important as to trump all these things. She reckons the cost of quitting is around £500 per quitter (without assuring us that this is a long-term quit rate and not a four-week one).

ASH Scotland is a charity that underwent an external review in 2007, containing the most recent figures I can access quickly (Table 6.1). As you can see from the review, Scottish Government provided about 60 per cent of the funding, with the rest split between the British Heart Foundation, Health Scotland (another government body), supporters/patrons and its own income from consultancy work. Charities are allowed to donate only to other charities, and so British Heart Foundation (privately funded for the most part) can only donate money on the strength of its charitable status. Voluntarily donated funding in 2006/7 ran to nil, with only £2,000 in previous years (a fraction of the money taken from government, £353K in 2005/6).

Why does this charity exist, since only those with a tobacco control agenda support it?, and without charitable status it would get no money from BHF either.

Sheila's blog post today says that Cancer Research UK funded the latest report, Beyond Smoke-Free (link in later post). Seems to be going round the houses for the Scottish Government to fund ASH only to have CRUK also fund it to frame tobacco control policy. As far as Sheila's appeal to retain ASH Scotland's funding is concerned, her recommending an extensive consultation on (among other things) the banning of smoking in cars, a policy she herself claims not to advocate, suggests that she hasn't grasped the seriousness of the economic climate.