Government apologizes for ‘offensive’ NHS anti-smoking poster featuring Sikh man as smoking is banned in religion

The Government has apologized after launching an “offensive” NHS poster featuring a Sikh man while urging the public to quit smoking.

The poster featured an image of a Sikh man wearing a turban alongside the phrase: “Make 2025 the year you quit smoking.”

It has since been removed from the NHS website.

The Sikh Code of Conduct, also known as Rehat Maryada, strictly prohibits the use of tobacco as well as opium, alcohol or cannabis.

The first Sikh guru, Guru Nanak, believed that consuming any mind-altering substance – which was not used for medicinal purposes – would only distract from God.

According to their religious code, Sikhs are not even allowed to go near such substances, even by mistake.

It is understood that although the advert contained NHS branding, it was commissioned by the Department of Health and Social Care.

Health Secretary Wes Streeting called the ad “inappropriate” and “offensive” in recent correspondence with the Sikh Federation UK seen by Sky News.

The Ilford North MP said he would look into how this error happened so he could put measures in place to “ensure similar errors do not happen again”.

Harwinder Singh of the Sikh Education Council told the publication he hopes the NHS as well as other factions of government can learn from these mistakes.

Mr Singh noted that although some Sikhs smoke, the use of a photo of a turbaned Sikh for the poster creates an association between “tobacco smoking and the wider Sikh community in particular.” .

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This image was included in error in our Stop Smoking campaign material and we wholeheartedly apologize for any offense caused.

“The post was never used on DHSC channels and the image has been removed and we are putting processes in place to ensure errors like this do not happen again.”