• March 19, 2024

Was UK’s plain pack consultation just a sham?

Opponents of standardized tobacco packaging have urged the UK government to publish the report on its 2014 consultation ‘without further delay’, according to a press note by Forest, the pro-smoker group.

“If the consultation process is not to be dismissed as a sham then the government must publish the responses promptly,” said MP Nick de Bois, who, as a Conservative, is a member of the senior partner in the current coalition government

“Now that ministers have confirmed they wish to press ahead with standardized packaging it’s frankly ludicrous not to publish their own report on the consultation, however inconvenient that may be for them.”

Simon Clark, the director of Forest, which runs the Hands Off Our Packs campaign, said Forest had submitted 53,000 letters and 97,000 petition responses to the consultation.

“That was almost six months ago,” he said. “The closing date was in August yet the government still hasn’t published a report, nor has it revealed how many consultation responses were received in total.

“It’s incomprehensible that the government would press ahead with legislation without allowing parliament, the public and other interested parties [to] see the responses.

“For the sake of transparency we urge the government to publish that information without further delay.”