Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will make it his policy that a final policy announcement on the standardised packaging of tobacco will be made on the floor of the House.

The Government has not yet made a final decision on whether to introduce regulations to require standardised packaging of tobacco products. A consultation is currently underway to inform decision-making and it will close on 7 August 2014. The consultation is available at the following link:

www.gov.uk/government/consultations/standardised-packaging-of-tobacco-products-draft-regulations

If a decision is made to proceed with the policy, regulations for standardised packaging would be subject to affirmative resolution of both Houses of Parliament.

We will give consideration to how an announcement will be made once relevant policy decisions have been taken by the Government.