Plain speaking on futility of tobacco packaging

I WRITE in response to your article “Cigarette warnings ‘not up to the job’” (Yorkshire Post, october 7).

The UK packaging industry has been saying for some time that the problem of illicit tobacco in this country is getting worse and that a policy of plain packaging for tobacco products would exacerbate this problem.

Statistics from HM Revenue & Customs in “Measuring Tax Gaps – 2013”, and published this month, now back this up. In the report HMRC acknowledges that the illicit trade in tobacco is increasing again, and the UK Treasury is losing billions of pounds a year at a time when the country can least afford it.

Even Deborah Arnott, chief executive of ASH, agrees that this is happening and if she knew anything about the manufacturing of sophisticated materials and variety of types of packaging would also recognise that packaging plays a significant role in combating the counterfeiter which plain packaging would further negate.

HMRC statistics estimate that 500 million more cigarettes were smuggled into the UK in 2012-13 than in 2011-12, and 300 more tonnes of hand rolling tobacco. The potential cost to the Government is estimated at almost £3bn, which is £500m more than last year.

The packaging industry questions a policy of plain packaging when there are alternative options which have been shown to be effective. For example in Germany an extensive programme shows schoolchildren around hospitals to meet people and see first-hand the physical effects of smoking. This has resulted in a dramatic falling off of smoking take up by this group without excessive regulation.

The debate on plain packaging would be much better understood if the emotions were extracted and greater thought given to evidence-based solutions rather than speculative judgements.