Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, with reference to the Impact Assessment for the Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015, which derives key valuables in its cost benefit analysis from the work of Pechey et al, what account he has taken of the statements in that article that it relies on best guess estimates and that its authors have an economic or personal stake in the issue.

The Impact Assessment makes clear how this research was used on page 53. It also considers the uncertainty associated with the estimates in the “Sensitivity and Risk” analysis on page 69.

The published research paper includes a section on competing interests. The authors state that they have no connections to the tobacco industry, nor any financial or non-financial competing interests that relate to the area of this study.

A copy of the research paper is attached.

The Impact Assessment can be found at:

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