Standardised Packaging (Tobacco Products)

Jane Ellison Excerpts

Wednesday 21st January 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Jane Ellison)]

I am pleased to have the opportunity to respond to this important debate and I congratulate the hon. Member for Glasgow North (Ann McKechin) on securing it.

As other Members have said, tobacco use remains one of our most significant public health challenges and reducing smoking rates is a key public health priority for this Government. The burden of smoking places enormous strain on the NHS and holds us back in the battle against cancer. This is why the Government have committed to and delivered on a comprehensive set of tobacco control measures, which include a ban on smoking in cars with children present, making it illegal for adults to buy tobacco products on behalf of children, outlawing displaying tobacco in shops and working to introduce age of sale requirements for e-cigarettes. Standardised packaging is part of this strategy and I am grateful for tonight’s opportunity to provide the House with an update on this policy.

It is important to acknowledge the enormous progress that has been made so far. Smoking rates in England are at their lowest level since records began. Today, around 18% of adults are smokers, down from around half of adults in the 1970s. Almost 2 million fewer people in England are smokers compared with a decade ago. Assuming that the downward trend of the past years continues, that equates to around 15,000 smoking-related deaths avoided during the course of this Parliament.

We know that most smokers start young, and we want our children to grow up free from the burden of disease that tobacco inflicts. The very good news is that the rates of regular smoking by children in England are also falling, with 8% of 15-year-olds smoking now compared with 15% in 2009, achieving the target set out in our tobacco control plan two years early. However, around 8 million people in England still smoke, so there is no room for complacency. The hon. Member for Glasgow North is right to draw attention to regional differences in smoking rates—including in her own area, where more than one in four people smokes. I think that she will agree with me that there is a concerning link between those rates and deprivation.

I wish to pick up on what the hon. Lady said about prevarication and delay. I have always been clear about the need to follow a robust process and ensure that all issues relevant to the introduction of standardised packaging are properly considered. That includes the implications for illicit trade, as my hon. Friend the Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Dame Angela Watkinson) mentioned, as well as the legal issues.

[Nick de Bois (Enfield North) (Con)]

Will my hon. Friend give way on that point?

[Jane Ellison]

I am afraid that I am really short of time.

[Nick de Bois]

Just a brief question.

[Jane Ellison]

I am very sorry, but I have been left very short of time.

The challenges that the tobacco industry is likely to bring to the regulations have also been carefully considered. It is vital that all stakeholders are heard and all evidence is carefully considered and evaluated. Ministers must ensure that that is done as thoroughly as possible so that any decision taken is solidly based on the available evidence.

Over the past few weeks and months, the Department of Health has carefully considered all responses to the most recent consultation and taken into account all the information and evidence on the public health implications as well as the wider issues, including the legal ones. I commend my officials, who have worked tirelessly to provide me and my ministerial colleagues with essential and valuable advice with which to make a decision.

As the House has already heard, I asked Sir Cyril Chantler, an eminent paediatrician, to undertake an independent review of whether the introduction of standardised packaging is likely to have an effect on public health, in particular in relation to children. I would like to thank him again for delivering such a thorough report.

Sir Cyril’s report concludes that, if standardised packaging were introduced, it would very likely have a positive impact on public health and that the health benefits would include health benefits for children. Following the publication of his report, we also held a final short consultation in summer 2014, seeking new and additional information, relevant to the policy, that had arisen since the last consultation.

Earlier this month, the chief medical officer and chief scientific adviser, Professor Dame Sally Davies, provided me with her review of the evidence and also of the criticisms of the Chantler review that have been put forward by the tobacco industry. Dame Sally has made it clear that she

“does not believe there is evidence to show that the process or the conclusions of the Chantler review are flawed and there is now accumulating evidence to support the conclusions of the review.”

It is her view that the evidence does support the introduction of standardised packaging.

There have been particular concerns that standardised packaging would increase illicit trade. In his review, Sir Cyril addresses those concerns and concludes:

“I am not convinced by the tobacco industry’s argument that standardised packaging would increase the illicit market, especially in counterfeit cigarettes.”

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs has also undertaken a detailed assessment of the potential impact of standardised packaging on the illicit market. It concluded:

“We have seen no evidence to suggest the introduction of standardised packaging will have a significant impact on the overall size of the illicit market or prompt a step-change in the activity of organised crime groups.”

The assessment is expected to be published in full soon.

We are also giving careful consideration to any and all potential legal challenges that may be brought against the Government as a result of introducing standardised packaging. As the hon. Lady knows, litigation by the tobacco industry is always a risk when introducing tobacco control legislation.

The Government are committed to reducing the numbers of young people taking up smoking and to helping smokers who are trying to quit. Our comprehensive approach to tobacco control is working. Fewer people than ever now smoke and cancer survival rates are at record highs. However, we cannot be complacent. We all know the damage that smoking does to health. Tobacco causes over 80,000 deaths a year, and around 600 children in the UK start smoking every day, as the hon. Member for Glasgow North said in her opening remarks.

The Government are completely committed to protecting children from the harm that tobacco causes. That is why I am announcing today that we will be bringing forward legislation for standardised packaging before the end of this Parliament. A consultant respiratory physician told me last year that he is confident that the introduction of standardised packaging will end up saving more lives than he would be able to in his entire career.

I thank all the people who have campaigned for this policy and all those who have contributed to the consultations—the 2012 consultation and the 2014 consultation. I hope that the thousands of other clinicians who have written to me, and to colleagues, over the past weeks and months will welcome this important progress. I want to reassure the House that I will provide further details about the introduction of the policy in due course.

Legislation—even new laws on packaging—will not solve all the problems relating to tobacco. Effective tobacco control depends not just on Government action; local authorities also have a key role, which is why we gave local government responsibility for public health. It is best placed to take forward local plans, based on local circumstances. We see a wide variation between the levels of smoking in our nation—during pregnancy and among young people—and we see that the policy of local action has been vindicated. Local authorities, supported by Public Health England, can advise on effective local action and share experience of what works.

Standardised packaging has the potential for huge public health benefits, but we must not forget that other measures will also contribute to reducing smoking rates. I remind the hon. Member for Glasgow North that Sir Cyril Chantler’s report advises that any policy of standardised packaging must be seen in the round as part of a comprehensive policy of tobacco control measures, and that is how I see the potential for standardised packaging working in this country. Effective tobacco control depends on taking a multifaceted approach, and that is what we are doing.

Only this morning, I was speaking to a number of local government leaders and hearing their reflections, and I know that many local authorities as well as health charities have also addressed the Government on this subject. Legislation to end tobacco displays has already been implemented for large shops such as supermarkets, as I mentioned. All other shops selling tobacco, including corner shops, will need to end their displays of tobacco on 6 April. The display of tobacco products in shops can promote smoking by young people and undermine the resolve of adult smokers trying to quit—and we know how many adult smokers are trying to quit.

While I have the Floor, I can give the House an update on smoking in cars. We laid the regulations to end smoking in private vehicles carrying children on 17 December 2014. The regulations have been considered by the scrutiny Committees, and I expect that we shall have a date for the debate soon. The regulations make it an offence to smoke in a vehicle if a child is present, and for a driver to fail to stop someone smoking in such situations. They provide for the police to be able to enforce against these offences and, if approved by Parliament, the regulations will come into force on 1 October 2015—again, as part of a comprehensive tobacco control strategy. We will also continue social marketing work in this area, with Public Health England running campaigns to raise awareness of the health harms and of the new offences. It is not my desire that people should be fined as a result of ignorance, and I want to ensure that as many people as possible are aware of the new policy.

As I mentioned earlier, we have also introduced legislation to make it illegal for an adult to buy or attempt to buy tobacco for anyone under the age of 18. Through regulations we plan to extend the scope of this offence to cover e-cigarettes. The Department is currently consulting on those draft regulations to introduce age-of-sale requirements for electronic cigarettes, as we already have for tobacco, and that consultation will close on 28 January.

I thank colleagues who have attended the debate, many of whom have expressed strong views about this policy. All of those views have been extremely carefully considered. The hon. Member for Glasgow North referred to the desire to make UK-wide legislation. I can confirm that I will be speaking to my ministerial colleagues in the devolved Administrations and I hope they will follow us to make this a UK-wide measure.

We will bring the regulations before Parliament in this Parliament. Should Parliament support the measure, we will be bringing the prospect of this country’s first smoke-free generation one decisive step closer. I thank the House for its attention tonight and colleagues for all their input into this policy making. I commend the policy to the House.

Question put and agreed to.