Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what restrictions they impose on the portrayal of smoking on television in relation to young people.
Broadcasting regulation is a matter for Ofcom, the independent regulator. Ofcom’s Broadcasting Code specifies that smoking must not be featured in programmes made primarily for children unless there is strong editorial justification. In addition, smoking must be generally avoided, and must not be condoned, encouraged or glamorised in programmes broadcast before the watershed or programmes likely to be widely seen by under-eighteens, unless there is editorial justification.