Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dan Jarvis and Jane Ellison

Tuesday 22nd October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Dan Jarvis (Barnsley Central) (Lab)]

Given that at least a quarter of a million children aged 11 to 15 take up smoking across the country each year, does the Minister accept that if we wait for two to three years for evidence to emerge from Australia about the impact of standardised cigarette packaging, hundreds of thousands of children will have started to smoke in the meantime?

[Jane Ellison]

On the Government Benches, we are interested in all measures that might stop children smoking. I do not recognise at all the time scales that the hon. Gentleman mentions. We are looking now at what is emerging in Australia and around the world so that we have more information on which to base an informed decision.