Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government, further to the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities' investigation into potential breaches of the prohibition of characterising flavours in tobacco products, why an American organisation was appointed to undertake the testing rather than a UK one.

Following an open tender process, King’s College London (KCL) was appointed to undertake testing of a range of products to support the investigation into potential breaches of the prohibition of characterising flavours in tobacco products. KCL’s bid stated that they intended to subcontract the laboratory testing stage to Roswell Park, a world-leading tobacco research and testing institute.

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities continues to work with KCL to ensure that all cigarette brands sent to Roswell Park for analytic destructive testing are exported in compliance with regulations. We expect outcomes from the testing to be available by the end of March 2022.