MOD Awards £323K Contract for Smoking Cessation Training and Tobacco Control Advice.
According to a contract award notice published by the Ministry of Defence (MOD), a £323,624 contract has been awarded to NCSCT Community Interest Company to provide smoking cessation training and expert tobacco control advice for the Armed Forces.
The five-year contract, which is set to begin in April 2025, includes an option for two one-year extensions. The MOD states that the initiative aims to support both military and civilian healthcare staff in addressing smoking-related health risks within the Armed Forces. The programme will be tailored to the unique conditions of service life, ensuring that personnel receive effective smoking cessation support.
Training and Advisory Services
According to the MOD, the contract will deliver:
- Smoking cessation training for healthcare staff, available both in-person and online.
- Expert tobacco control advice to help shape MOD policies and service delivery.
- Support for research and international best practices in smoking cessation, ensuring alignment with broader health and wellbeing initiatives.
The MOD states that the successful provider must adapt training materials to ensure they are relevant to military personnel operating in high-stress or operational environments.
Competitive Procurement Process
According to the notice, the MOD received two bids, both from small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Following a competitive selection process, NCSCT CIC was awarded the contract based on cost-effectiveness and expertise in tobacco control.
The MOD states that this initiative aligns with wider Defence health and wellbeing policies, helping to improve the long-term health and operational readiness of military personnel.
Luckily the MOD is awash with money.
Gosh who times have changed. Along with our bedding, we were issued a “bedside” mat and ashtray. I think at the time 5 out of the 6 in our room smoked.
During basics, we would keep a couple of cigarettes and some matches under the plastic liner in our No 1 dress hat, to smoke during 5 minute breaks during drill.
Absolute nonsense and a waste of money.
Smoking already banned at many MOD sites. Stop smoking material widely available online. General smoking risk already widely known.
But no. We’ve got to spaff more cash up the wall pointlessly. Still, at least someone will get their MBE, eh!
Smoking does not just have long term health implications, it also has direct short term effects on things like Lung Capacity, and Aerobic Fitness. Smoking cessation has direct benefits in terms of physical performance, and I’d have thought the military expecting physical performance to be high was common knowledge.
But hey, at least you managed to get your stupid MBE dig in haven’t you?
Who doles UK taxpayers money out like this and why???
The MOD uses it’s budget as it sees fit. Smoking impacts physical performance, so, it might surprise you to learn, the Military has an interest in minimizing it.
Wow you’re on a crusade in the comments section. Having a fag break?
Actually have a point to raise or just here to troll?
Stop this nonsense. Servicemen should be allowed their simple luxuries and vices. Go back to putting cigarettes in the ration packs. People say “this is unhealthy, ban it.” So is getting shot maimed, deafened and otherwise injured , but that is kind implied in the job description.
Yeah so, nobody is telling service personnel they are can’t smoke. It’s just that smoking has proven effects on your physical fitness (not to mention the health of people around you; second hand smoke is real), so the armed forces are well within their rights to promote smoking cessation. I’m going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume you actually understand the difference between doing something voluntarily that lowers your physical fitness, and involuntarily getting shot. Because only someone who was actually stupid wouldn’t get the difference.
Servicemen live in the UK and watch the same TV, listen to the same radio as everybody else. Let the national campaigns influence and the MOD taeget its money on the front line.
Given that smoking cessation has literal effects on the front line, I’d argue that this is a very small amount of money that is targeted on the front line. The wider general population do not have physical fitness as a employment requirement.
Actually the risks around second hand smoke are negligible. They are played up by people who have an agenda. The impact of smoking on lung function in the young is not significant either, and it is the young who best meet the army’s physical performance requirements anyway.
To be fair, the risks around second hand smoke are real, and not as negligible as you make think.
I would have thought the risks around second-hand bullets and missiles were greater…
‘Actually the risks around second hand smoke are negligible’.
Do you actually have any evidence at all for that statement? Because i can give you a lot of official medical sources that contradict it.
Tell that to Roy Castle.. oh wait, you can’t, he’s dead, because of second hand smoke.
He spent his entire time in working men’s clubs and pubs. Armed Forces tend to work outdoors. You are comparing apples with a double-decker bus.
My dad has asthma due to second hand smoke. But yes, focus on the single throw away comment instead of the main thrust of the argument.
Elliott, when were ciggies in the ration pack? I joined in 1975 and they did not feature then.
Because when you are sitting in a trench waiting to be bombed, shot, gassed or generally squashed like a gnat, dying of cancer in 20 years is first and fore most on your mind. In addition, when you’re “hurrying up and waiting”, which is a large part of Service life, having a fag is usually one of the few things you are allowed to do.
324k is not much for a stop smoking campaign. Service people are more likely to smoke because of the reasons you mentioned and also if they live on camp they are going to have more disposable income and be less affected by increased tax on cigarettes. This was especially prevalent when we were in Germany and had access to duty free fags. I smoked throughout my time in the Army as it was practically encouraged but i would hope that if my kids joined up they would be actively discouraged with his sort of campaign.
Remember when you moan about no money for defence because of increased NHS budgets a lot of their resources are being spaffed on lifelong smokers with chronic conditions.
Big, why do soldiers who live on camp ie the vast majority…have more disposable income?
Cheap food and accommodation.
And maybe reintroduce asbestos for insulation in barracks too? As you said, why worry about what will kill you in 20 years…
This is pathetic.
It’s not, it’s a drop in the ocean budget wise and if it works it will contribute to the health of the military and therefore combat and operational effectiveness
How many drops make a bucket ?
This is less than one 20th of a single Challenger 3 tank (which is considered excellent WFM, when compared to other MBTs) for something that will have force wide benefits.
Yes it’s a pathetically small amount that could have a huge impact on soldiers fitness and long-term health.
The real trick here is to have some decent measurable indicators of the programs effectiveness ( or not). This gives value for money and can lead to program improvements where needed.
Reducing smoking in the Armed Forces is by and large a good thing for reasons already stated above. In some ways it is akin to the army temperance societies that sprang up in the 19th century to curb excessive drinking ( tho they of course were more Christian than govt based).
Just make it a prerequisite not to smoke before joining the Army…..sorted.
If done well this is peanuts in the MOD budget but I would be interested to know f similar training is provided to address the (excessive) drinking culture and perhaps a focus on the general misuse of drugs. Whilst I appreciate testing is required for the latter it is easy to see the potential risks of someone under the influence.
If you want to find real waste in MOD look at construction projects which have DREAM, CEEQUAL and other sustainability assessments for each and every project. These each spawn multiple reports and surveys for every single project that also adds costs to each tender provided to MOD from contractors. A consultants Christmas present, which adds nothing to reducing carbon omissions or sustainable goals generally but costs tens of thousands of pounds on even the smallest of construction projects and exacerbated by the MOD’s employment of its own in house team to check and validate all the virtual paper that is created. Total cost to MOD will be in the millions.
I am passionate about improving the environment and addressing climate change but the approach taken is a job creation scheme that contributes very little.
The same applies to an extent across the whole of the public sector ably supported by consultants interested in milking the public purse.
Unfortunately I fear any attempt to clear away much of this rubbish will be protected by the Net zero zealots who don’t appreciate the detail and seem not to realise we are bankrupting ourselves when our emissions represent a small fraction of global emissions whilst others continue to increase theirs.
Sorry I have gone off topic again.
Sjb, yes very much the same is done for the excessive drinking culture and misuse of drugs.
On Drinking, there is a considerable difference in culture between when I joined (only a little over a decade ago), and now. There used to be a sort of knowing eyes closed attitude to drink, and it was not only expected, but kind of encouraged for people to be either hung over or actively still drunk on CO’s PT on a Friday morning. Initiations in unit where sometimes enough for individuals to be hospitalised for Alcohol poisoning. That’s pretty much entirely gone now. Drinking is still a heavy part of Army culture, and, especially for SNCO’s and Officers in the Mess (where lets face it the old and bold definitely linger and change is the slowest), but certainly if I showed up either drunk or smelling of alcohol now I’d be in serious shit. (Side note; I suspect the closing down of BFG/BAOR helped with this as the British Army drinking culture in Germany was lethal).
As for Drugs, the MoD regularly preforms spot checks on it’s units. CDT (Compulsory Drug Test) teams will basically lock down camps and require everyone on camp to undergo a drugs test. And the MoD has a zero tolerance policy to Drugs, so being tested positive by a CDT team can result in nearly instant dismissal.
So, I’d argue the training provided to Alcohol and Drug misuse is different, in that it’s generally harsher.
I think your comments on where the drinking culture remains strong is so true and it does seem like the younger generation in the civilian world at least are definitely drinking less.
For sure the generational shift helps as well.
Having been in the military for 40 plus year’s it’s a fact that the government can give the MOD as much money as they wish, but it will not increase the amount of equipment the troops on the ground have. I worked at a Air base where they had more flight safety officers than aircraft. And this is just another example.
How smoking in the Armed Forces has turned 90 degrees. When I joined HMS Condor in Arbroath for Navy air engineering training in 1968 as a 16 year old we were issued three cigarette stamps per month which we could exchange at the clothing store (Slops) for 300 cigarettes or the equivalent in tobacco for the cost of £1.50 in today’s money! There was no cash offered as an alternative so everyone signed up to be a smoker or lose out. The cigarettes became currency for swapping duties or favours. Don’t get me started on the issue of a third of a pint of diluted Navy rum (grog) to those over 21 at lunchtime before they worked on aircraft in the afternoon! Sometimes change is good!
Erm…what ???
When will we see an anti-drinking campaign?
We have, it’s been a massive push in the last decade to get the Army binge drinking culture under control.
They should just sell mod-branded capes at bases instead. Make some money and get the smokers to switch to a healthier alternative.
*Vapes
The focus should be to stop drinking and abolishing the mess
It’s a good idea as long as it’s supported and encouraged rather than nannied and forced, the NHS manage the former with their staff it seems.
Regarding the money and contract, while small in the grand scheme of things and worth it, doesn’t every single NHS Trust have a similar program with entire teams of health professionals’, graphic designers, trainers etc. that the MOD could tailor then piggyback on? Or is it all outsourced across the public sector?
Lol, whilst times are changing and a lot of people are on the health wagon, I certainly don’t think money to this extreme should be dished out for this purpose, these are men and women we’re talking about, old enough to know what’s bad for them, service personal come in contact with more armfull fumes then ciggerettes whilst doing their jobs, why smoking and not alcohol many alcohol related illnesses follow service men/woman after they leave the forces you don’t become homeless from smoking, PTSD His fueled by alcohol, marriages breakdown if one goes both should, leave the them alone what else are they going to have after running around being shot at, oh I know a line of cocaine now that’s a story for another day…