Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, if he will delay the commencement of regulations on the standardised packaging of tobacco products for 12 months or until any legal challenges have been concluded.

Certain parts of the Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations implement the European Tobacco Products Directive are required to be brought into force in May 2016. For those regulations that introduce further requirements, it is clear that there are benefits for business if the requirements of the Directive and the further standardised packaging requirements are implemented at the same time.

The Government will keep under close review all legal challenges that are relevant to standardised packaging of tobacco products. If legal challenges are made to the regulations, then it will promote certainty, and be better for all affected parties, that such challenges are determined in courts or tribunals as soon as possible.