Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask Mr Chancellor of the Exchequer, pursuant to the Answer of 6 September 2018 to Question 169565 on tobacco: smuggling, when HMRC plans to make a decision on security features for UK tobacco packaging as required by the EU Tobacco Products Directive; and how new track and trace requirements will be integrated with requirements for standardised tobacco packaging.

On 20 September, HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) published the security features that will be required on all unit packs of cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco manufactured in, or imported into the UK, under the Tobacco Products Directive.

A tendering exercise for the ID issuer is currently underway and the full technical details of the track and trace requirements will be finalised once the ID issuer is in place. Compatibility with the requirements for standardised tobacco packaging is a key consideration in this work.