West's public health authorities invest £44m in tobacco

More than £44m has been invested in tobacco firms by local councils in the West, despite their new responsibility for promoting public health.

Figures obtained by the BBC show that a pension fund administered by Somerset County Council has approved the biggest spend of £21.6m.

Gloucestershire County Council has invested £12.2m, authorities in Avon some £9.7m and Wiltshire Council £1.1m.

In April, as part of the NHS reform, local government was passed responsibility for public health - a term encompassing everything that prevents disease and prolongs life, such as promoting physical activity and better diets, as well as stop smoking services.

The former director of public health for the South West, Dr Gabriel Scally, has lambasted the investments as an "impossible contradiction".

He said: "How can you have a responsibility to improve the health of the population and yet be one of the owners of a tobacco company?

They make money by making you sick, then make more by 'trying' to make you well.