Does the Portfolio Holder for Adult Services support the concept of plain packaging for cigarettes?
Minutes:
“Does the Portfolio Holder for Adult Services support the concept of plain packaging for cigarettes?”
Councillor Brake stated that due to the lethal consequences of smoking and the far-reaching impact of tobacco use on the Medway community, it was necessary to take into account all of the findings from work undertaken in Australia, where plain packaging has already been introduced, and the UK independent review, where it seemed likely that the introduction of plain packaging would contribute towards reducing youth uptake of smoking and would prompt quit attempts in current smokers and would not impact negatively on small businesses or illegal trade. It was therefore an important measure for public health in Medway as well as for England as a whole.
By way of background much of the reasoning for supporting this concept centred on the findings of the independent 'Chantler Review' commissioned by the government to investigate the possible impact of plain packaging. After robust investigation, Sir Cyril Chantler concluded thatit was “highly likely that standardised packaging would serve to reduce the rate of children taking up smoking" and would have a "positive impact on public health". This conclusion was formed after consideration of the large amount of research that existed showing that features of branded packaging such as logos, pack colours and pack design appealed to specific audiences and that this effect could be seen in young people as well as adults, despite manufacturers claiming that they were only aimed at those aged over 18.
Since tobacco was known to kill one in every two users, there was a duty to protect young people from this lethal addiction and this therefore included implementation of measures likely to reduce youth uptake of smoking. Nicotine addiction could form extremely quickly, so research showing that plain packaging would reduce the appeal of smoking could only be a positive thing by decreasing the likelihood of young people taking up the habit.
The younger a child started smoking, the more damaging it was to their health and the more likely they were to become heavily addicted and to have difficulty quitting. Since the introduction of plain packaging in Australia, calls to 'Quit Line' had increased and smoking rates were at an all time low.
Therefore, Councillor Brake confirmed that he did support plan packaging for cigarettes.
Supplementary question
Councillor Juby stated that given that the standardised packaging made it easier for counterfeiters or smugglers as they would only have to master one design thus increasing the availability of untaxed products under the counter, would this not increase the amount of people smoking in the long term and also make it harder to identify smuggled goods harder to trace and then make Council’s Trading Standards harder to prosecute vendors of illegal cigarettes.
He asked what the Portfolio Holder would be doing to make it easier for Trading Standards.
Councillor Brake stated that as part of the work undertaken, it dismissed concerns that plain packaging resulted in an increase in any illegal trade stating that there was no evidence that standardised packaging was easier to counterfeit and indeed the work undertaken in Australia, hardly any counterfeit standardised packages had been found to date indicating that it had clearly gone the other way.
He stated that he believed that Trading Standards, who had a very difficult job to undertake, would work very closely with law enforcement agencies regarding illicit and illegal tobacco.