Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if the government will publish any evidence it has received over the last three years that supports the continuing ban on the oral nicotine product snus.

The oral nicotine product snus was originally banned under Directive 92/41/EEC. This ban was reaffirmed in 2001 and most recently in the Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EU, implemented in the United Kingdom by the Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016. The Department has received a number of representations concerning snus over recent years. The makers of snus, Swedish Match, have challenged the legality of the ban on snus and this matter is currently before the European Court of Justice; as such, the strength of the evidence for or against the ban is a matter for the Court and the UK awaits the outcome of that case.