Government urged to publish plain pack consultation report "promptly" and "without further delay"

Wed 28th January, 2015

Opponents of plain packaging of tobacco have urged the government to publish the report on its 2014 consultation “promptly” and “without further delay”.

Nick de Bois, Conservative MP for Enfield North, said, “If the consultation process is not to be dismissed as a sham then the government must publish the responses promptly.

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

Simon Clark, director of the smokers’ group Forest which runs the Hands Off Our Packs campaign, said:

“We submitted 53,000 letters and 97,000 petition responses to the consultation.

“That was almost six months ago. 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 see the responses.

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

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