Tobacco Packaging

Barbara Keeley Excerpts

Thursday 7th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Barron]

It is indeed. The packages themselves are there to attract young women. I have an empty packet in my office that demonstrates exactly that. The idea that packaging is not used to sell products or advertise them effectively is nonsense. The Silver Slide design is intended deliberately to undercut the health warnings that the law now requires on each packet.

The hon. Member for Ribble Valley talked about adverts and bill posters, and said that he could only understand the part at the bottom. When I introduced a private Member’s Bill in 1994 to get rid of tobacco advertising and promotion, it was pretty clear that most of the adverts on billboards were not understood by some people. They were deliberately designed for the inquiring mind. There would be a picture of a piece of silk with a cut halfway down the middle. The advert did not say Silk Cut cigarettes; it did not have to. However, who are the ones with inquiring minds? They are young people. Tobacco companies did that deliberately for many years, and the G. K. Chesterton quote is to get young people to say that they can take this on, and that they are not bothered about what people say.

In Australia, it has been decided that there should be no branding on tobacco packaging other than the product name shown in a standard font, size and colour. No other trade marks, logos, colour schemes and graphics are permitted. Colours and graphics have been selling cigarettes in this country for decades. In Australia, cigarette packs should not carry attractive designs and should therefore come in standard shape, size and colours, and the colours should be as unattractive as possible. There should be prominent health warnings front and back, in pictures as well as writing, and there should be a phone number and web address on every pack to help smokers to access quit services.

There are 100,000 premature deaths a year from tobacco smoking in this country. If those deaths had been caused by anything else in the 30 years that I have been in Parliament, this House would have been sitting 24 hours a day, seven days a week, until we could find a way to stop it. It is no good the Government saying that they will wait. We know what tobacco marketing has been like for decades. We have stopped most of it, and we should stop this advertising at the point of use as well.

[Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab)]

In an area such as Salford, 1,000 young people—the figure was 1,100 in Barnsley—will start to smoke this year. If I am called to make a speech, I will talk about that. Ten months, a year or 18 months of delay will cause 1,000 or 1,500 young people in an area such as mine to start smoking, and that is a tragedy.

[Mr Barron]

And another 207,000 nationally will start this habit a year.

One might ask why people buy a packet of cigarettes when it has a warning on it, but this is an addiction. All sorts of addictions sadly roll over common sense, and tobacco is no different. Stopping young people starting is crucial, and that is working. Smoking rates for young children are diminishing now, as are rates for adults, partly as a result of taxation and partly because we are stopping tobacco companies promoting cigarettes.

There are no figures to show that counterfeiting is more likely with plain packaging. Earlier this year, the Japanese company came to the House and told us that there would be more counterfeiting, but there is no evidence of that. It showed us—I have one in my pocket —a counterfeit packet. It looks like any other Benson & Hedges packet, so counterfeiting happens now. Standard packaging could include features to protect against counterfeiting, and it is for the House to regulate to introduce them. Hon. Members should not use the arguments that have been sold by the tobacco companies year after year. When it was found that tobacco related to massive numbers of deaths, the companies were still questioning that decades after the event—they still do now. They use this House to do it on occasions and, I have to say, it is wrong. When there are 100,000 premature deaths a year, we as legislators have some responsibility to alleviate the problem. I know that smoking is addictive and it is difficult for people to stop.

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[Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab)]

I congratulate the hon. Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman), my hon. Friend the Member for Stockton North (Alex Cunningham), my right hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley (Mr Barron) and the right hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Burstow) on securing the debate on this important subject. We need to keep focusing on the issue because it has a great impact on the health of our constituents and most of all on the children and young people in our constituencies.

As an MP representing Salford, I want to speak today because, as others have said about their constituencies, smoking, smoking-related deaths and lung cancer rates are all too high in Salford. One in four of the population in Salford smoke, which is higher than the national average of one in five people in England as a whole. As a consequence, we have much higher rates of smoking-related death in Salford and a higher incidence of lung cancer, with 175 new cases of lung cancer diagnosed each year. The right hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam said that it was estimated that 530 children in his borough would start smoking this year. In Salford, sadly, the figure is nearly 1,000—almost double.

As we have heard in the debate, so many smokers— estimated at eight out of 10—start by the age of 19 and one in two of those young people will die of smoking-related diseases if they become long-term smokers. We know and we should continue to reflect upon the fact that this habit is the biggest cause of premature death in the UK and long-term smokers have a life expectancy that is 10 years shorter than non-smokers.

There has been some debate about the early evidence from Australia on the introduction of plain packaging. It suggests to me that branded cigarette boxes influence the perception of smoking among young people, and that plain packaging can help in the fight against starting smoking. That is why the issue is important and it is largely what I shall speak about here. As the right hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam said, 70% of those interviewed in a study in Australia who smoked from plain packets said that they thought the cigarettes were “less satisfying”. That is an important finding. They rated quitting as a higher priority than those who continued to smoke from a branded pack did.

A separate study found that 80% of children interviewed rated plain cigarette packs as “uncool”. Members who have spoken so far have rightly focused on how much packaging influences that perception of cool, because brands are very important to young people. Those are powerful findings from Australia.

I believe that there is weight behind the argument that cigarette packaging is the last legal form of tobacco advertising and that it has an influence on young people’s perception of smoking. That in itself is why we should take action to introduce plain packaging.

In the excellent Westminster Hall debate on 3 September —we have already touched on this, but it is worth reflecting on—the then Health Minister, the hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry), talked about the power of packaging. She said:

“I have never forgotten the first time that I bought a packet of cigarettes.”

She deliberately chose a particular brand

“because they were green, gorgeous and a symbol of glamour.”

She said:

“I distinctly remember the power of that package. It was the opening of the cellophane and the gold and the silver that was so powerfully important to many people who, as youngsters, took up smoking.”—[Official Report, 3 September 2013; Vol. 567, c. 23WH.]

That was a very honest admission from a Health Minister, but she still went on to adopt the “wait and see” approach that we are getting from the Government. The health of our young people does not have time for wait and see.

In the previous Parliament we introduced a ban on smoking in public places, and I was very pleased to be a Member of this House when we voted for that. I visited Copenhagen earlier this year and found myself in public places where people were lighting up cigarettes. I was surprised, because it is easy to forget how unpleasant it is to be in a public place where people are smoking and to come home with clothes and hair reeking of smoke. It is very unfamiliar to us now. Much worse, of course, are the health impacts for the people in those places who do not want to inhale smoke.

My hon. Friend the Member for Barnsley Central (Dan Jarvis) outlined the steps that have already been taken to make smoking less attractive. Tobacco advertising has been banned from TV, billboards and sports such as Formula 1. Surely the next step is to tackle the advertising on the packaging.

In 1950 the figures were much higher: around 80% of men and 40% of women smoked. Amazingly, cigarette advertising at the time used images of doctors and celebrities to promote the different brands. One brand even used images of Santa Claus smoking—imagine that in the run-up to Christmas—to prove that it was easy on the throat. In the Westminster Hall debate my hon. Friend the Member for Vale of Clwyd (Chris Ruane) told me about a cigarette pack currently being sold—we have heard today from the right hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam about some of the packs available—and described it as

“a lovely 1950s retro pack, which opens up to show nice pink cigarettes inside”—[Official Report, 3 September 2013; Vol. 567, c. 18WH.]

Those packs are targeted at young teenage girls, and that is very cynical advertising. As I have said, the early evidence suggests that the attractiveness of the brand does have an impact, especially on young people, who are so impressionable. We know that the colour pink is being used because it is attractive to young teenage girls.

Early reports suggest that plain packaging can make such a big difference by changing perceptions of smoking. That is important for our children. A review commissioned by the Department of Health and the Public Health Research Consortium showed that standardised packaging was less attractive, more effective in conveying messages about the health implications of smoking and more likely to reduce the mistaken belief that some brands are safer than others, the old idea that flavourings or menthol make it less damaging, which is also untrue. All the evidence suggests that plain tobacco packaging greatly reduces the attractiveness of cigarettes for children, and Australia’s stance is supported by the World Health Organisation.

I want briefly to congratulate stop smoking services in Salford, particularly on their programmes focused on reducing smoking in families with children under 16. If children do not see their parents smoking, they are less likely to start smoking themselves. Many of our programmes in Salford are targeted at those families.

All the tobacco advertising I have talked about is pernicious. However it is done, whether with slim packages, colouring or making it look like perfume, it focuses on young people, and particularly young women who want to remain slim. It is almost unbelievable that tobacco companies used to use Santa Claus and doctors to promote smoking and tried to persuade us that it was safe. I do not want to continue to see 1,000 young people in Salford start smoking each year. It is time we took the next important step to close down cigarette advertising by introducing plain packs. It is time to prevent our children from starting smoking. It is time the Government supported the amendment to the Children and Families Bill that will take that important step. Above all, it is time to reduce the large numbers of people affected by smoking-related illness and early death, both in Salford and across the country.

[Guto Bebb (Aberconwy) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley). I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Harrow East (Bob Blackman) on securing the debate and the other Members who went to the Backbench Business Committee to ensure that it took place. However, my comments will not be particularly supportive of my hon. Friend’s views on the issue. I look at the matter from the perspective of a member of the Public Accounts Committee, which recently produced a significant report on the impact of tobacco smuggling on the loss of tax revenue in the UK. Having seen the evidence, I came to the strong conclusion that the case for plain packaging is certainly unproven.

The hon. Member for Worsley and Eccles South said that she wanted to ensure that 1,000 children in her constituency do not take up smoking. I wonder what the evidence is to suggest that those 1,000 children will not take up smoking simply because of a change in the product’s packaging. The right hon. Member for Rother Valley (Mr Barron) explained that he started smoking by stealing cigarettes from his father. I wonder whether his father’s choice of brand had any significant impact on his decision to steal a single cigarette. When I was growing up in Caernarfon, when people wanted to smoke they went to a local post office to buy singles. I suspect that they gave no consideration whatsoever to the brand; the point was that they could buy cigarettes very cheaply, usually one at a time. It was an important development when that was made an illegal practice that would not be tolerated. However, it is still the case that the driver is the price, not the branding. That is what I want to talk about.

When the Public Accounts Committee researched the smuggling of tobacco products into the UK, some of the information that emerged from that work was shocking. For example, in the top 10 recognised consumer brands of cigarettes in this country there are often two or three that are illicit and that it is illegal to supply in this country—for example Jin Ling, Richman and Raquel. Strictly speaking, those brands should not be available and so they would not be affected by legislation on plain packaging, yet independent consumer surveys show that those brands, despite being illicit and illegal, are recognised by the public.

The question we must ask, therefore, is why and how those brands are gaining a foothold in this country. Clearly it is unacceptable that they are smuggled into the country, and at such a rate that they are now recognised consumer brands. The key point we must recognise is that the driver for the sale of those products is not the branding or the so-called attractive packaging; it is the price. A packet of 20 cigarettes costs between £7.50 and £8. My son, who is lucky enough to have a paper round, would have to spend half his weekly wage if he decided to buy a packet of cigarettes legally, yet he could go out to any estate or high street in my constituency and, if he was switched on, find a packet of illicit tobacco for between £2 and £2.50.

I therefore argue that the driver encouraging young people to start smoking is more likely to be the price than the branding. If a young person can buy a packet of 20 cigarettes for 15% or 20% of their weekly paper round wage, they would be more tempted to do so than if they could buy it for 50% of their wage. By concentrating on plain packaging, we are ignoring an important fact: price is a driver for the sale of these products.

Time and again hon. Members have argued that plain packaging is about protecting young people, yet in university towns the young people often smoke roll-your-owns. The figure for roll-your-own tobacco is absolutely atrocious. In my constituency, which has no higher education facility, 48% of loose-leaf tobacco will be smuggled and illicit. The vast majority will not be recognised UK brands. In any town with a university or further education college, the percentage of illegal and smuggled loose-leaf tobacco will be even higher. What is the driver? What is persuading young people to buy tobacco products that are not officially marketed in the United Kingdom? The answer, I argue, is price.

[Barbara Keeley]

The hon. Gentleman seems to be arguing that people who are already addicted, such as older students, will smoke anything, but that is not surprising. We have repeatedly argued that young people get addicted in their early teens, and his arguments do not negate that.

[Guto Bebb]

The hon. Lady completely misrepresents my view. I said clearly at the outset that the temptation for young people is much enhanced if the product is affordable, and I think she fully understood my point.

It is important to recognise the problem of illicit and smuggled products because evidence—yes, to be tested and argued about—has been presented to suggest that plain packaging will actually make it easier for these products to be made available. I am fully aware that there are arguments on both sides. However, what is being said in this debate is, in effect, that the Government’s decision to wait to look at the evidence from Australia somehow indicates that they are in league with the tobacco companies. I find that quite distasteful.

I genuinely approach this debate from the point of view that I would like the number of people who smoke to be reduced—to nothing, I hope. I have never smoked, and if any of my children smoked I would be absolutely furious. Indeed, I lost my father to lung cancer at the young age of 63. My children never saw their grandfather simply because of his smoking. If the evidence was clear that plain packaging would be the answer, I would be supportive. I find it very odd that Members are saying that looking at the evidence is somehow condemning people to die. That is emotional and unacceptable language.

When Populus recently surveyed a number of police officers about whether they thought that plain packaging would be helpful, 86% of them clearly stated that they thought it would make it easier for illicit tobacco products to be supplied and that those products would be targeted at young people who could afford them. Sixty-eight per cent. of the police officers thought that plain packaging would lead to an increase in the size of the black economy in relation to tobacco products. A full 62% thought that an increase in cheap tobacco products would result in an increase in the use of tobacco products by children. Those are very interesting and important findings from a poll of police officers. Are their views correct? We need to look at the evidence and consider very carefully whether it supports them.

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[Luciana Berger]

That point has been made by other hon. Members in this debate. I remember from when I was a young person that children do not get their money only from their parents and that they do not necessarily buy the cigarettes themselves. Often, they see other people getting out their packs of cigarettes.

The children in the university of Stirling study who were shown a packet of Silk Cut cigarettes were found to be more than four times more likely to be susceptible to smoking. Those children had never smoked.

It is the packaging that entices children. If we want to discourage children from ever starting to smoke, we need to question whether that is an acceptable way to market a product that is highly addictive, seriously harmful and clinically proven to kill. Smokers advertise tobacco brands to other people every time they take out their pack to smoke. The packets should not be glitzy adverts, but should carry strong and unambiguous health warnings about the dangers of smoking. We should not allow those warnings to be subverted by the design of the rest of the packet.

I will move on to my second theme. We have heard a few arguments against standardised packaging in this debate. We have also heard those arguments from the tobacco industry. I will deal with each of the arguments in turn. Much of the discussion has centred around evidence. Hon. Members have said that there is no evidence that standardised packaging will work. That is not true.

Last year, the systematic review by the Public Health Research Consortium, which was commissioned by the Department of Health, looked at all the evidence on standardised packaging. The findings are clear for everyone to see. It found that standardised packaging is less attractive, especially to young people. My hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) rightly pointed out that it takes away the cool factor. The review also found that standardised packaging makes health warnings more effective and combats the utter falsehood that some brands are safer than others. Those findings have been backed up by 17 studies that have been published since the systematic review. Government Members, including the hon. Member for Ribble Valley, have asked for evidence. We have the evidence.

A separate study that was published in the British Medical Journal in July looked at research from Australia soon after the introduction of standardised packaging. It found that smokers who used standardised packs were 66% more likely to think that their cigarettes were of a poorer quality, 70% more likely to say that they found them less satisfying, 81% more likely to have thought about quitting at least once a day in the previous week and much more likely to rate quitting as a higher priority in their lives than smokers who used branded packs. Not only are people less likely to take up smoking when presented with standardised packs; people who already smoke are more likely to think about quitting if the cigarettes that they buy come in standardised packaging.

[Barbara Keeley]

My hon. Friend is being very generous with her time. The hon. Member for Rossendale and Darwen (Jake Berry) seemed to be quite satisfied with the Government’s action on this issue, although that is perhaps not surprising given the views that he has put forward in this debate. However, it is a fact that fewer people have quit smoking successfully and that fewer people have attempted to quit with NHS help over the last year. That is the first time since 2008-09 that those figures have fallen. I talked about quit services in Salford, but such services are now less successful and there must be a reason for that. Does my hon. Friend take that as seriously as I do?

[Luciana Berger]

I thank my hon. Friend for that important intervention. The figures that came out just the other week do show a drop in the number of people who are quitting smoking through NHS services. I am very concerned about that. As I said at the start of my contribution, 200,000 young people still take up smoking every year. That is exactly what we are seeking to address in this debate.

We have reflected a lot on the Australian experience. The former Australian Health Minister, Tanya Plibersek, reported that there was a

“flood of calls…in the days after the introduction of plain packaging accusing the Government of changing the taste of cigarettes.”

She went on to say:

“Of course there was no reformulation of the product. It was just that people being confronted with the ugly packaging made the psychological leap to disgusting taste.”

That is a significant point. Far from there being no evidence, there is a swathe of evidence.

The second claim raised during our debate is that standardised packaging would increase the trade in counterfeit cigarettes, or impact on the printing trade. Again, it is important to clarify that we are talking about standardised packaging. I have heard hon. Members use the term “plain packaging”, but we are not discussing that. I know I am not allowed to demonstrate this at the Dispatch Box, Madam Deputy Speaker, but standardised packaging is clearly printed; it is not a plain pack. Current packaging is already so easy to forge that covert markings enable enforcement officials to identify counterfeit cigarettes, and all key security features on existing packets would continue on standardised packets. Standardised packaging would make pictorial warnings more prominent and packaging harder to forge.

We heard in an important contribution that standardised packaging might lead to an increase in illicit trade, but that is simply not true. Andrew Leggett, deputy director for tobacco and alcohol strategy at Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, stated in oral evidence to the House of Lords European Union sub-Committee on Wednesday 24 July:

“There are a number of potential factors that weigh on counterfeit packaging”,

but that if standardised packaging was introduced, it was

“very doubtful that it would have a material effect.”

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[Jane Ellison]

The Government are following discussions in another place closely. Beyond that, I am not able to comment in this debate, but we are well aware of those discussions and Ministers are participating in them.

Australia introduced standardised packaging in December 2012, and New Zealand and the Republic of Ireland have committed to do that. In addition, other academic studies are emerging about the effects of that policy.

The UK has a long and respected tobacco control tradition internationally, although at times in this debate it has been possible to miss that point. Under successive Governments the UK’s record has been good, and we will continue to implement our existing plan to reduce smoking rates while keeping the policy of standardised packaging under active review. The tobacco control plan for England sets out national ambitions to reduce smoking prevalence among adults, young people and pregnant mothers. As the plan makes clear, to be effective, tobacco control needs comprehensive action on a range of fronts.

I will talk a little more about this in the context of devolved powers of public health to local government, but there is a slight danger that by focusing only on one aspect of tobacco control, we forget that there are other—and indeed more—things that we could do. Even if it was possible to say today that we would do this tomorrow, we would still be debating how we could effectively control tobacco and stop children taking up smoking. As various hon. Members have said, including the right hon. Member for Rother Valley (Mr Barron), this is an ongoing battle to protect children’s health.

[Barbara Keeley]

Is the Minister concerned about the fact that between April 2012 and March 2013, there was an 11% decline in the number of people setting a quit date? We are concerned about children, but if they are still watching their parents smoking, it is more likely that they will start. I hope that she is disturbed by the fact that the numbers setting out to quit are falling—it is the first fall since 2008-09. The Minister should address that point.

[Jane Ellison]

We are aware of that, but smoking in this country has dipped below 20% for the first time ever. I am aware of the hon. Lady’s concerns and I shall talk a bit about some of the public health campaigns and the new opportunities, not just for the Government but for local government and individual Members, on tobacco control policy.

As our plan makes clear, effective tobacco control needs comprehensive action on many fronts. The Government are taking action nationally. We are committed to completing the implementation of legislation to end the display of tobacco in shops. Since 2012, supermarkets can no longer openly display tobacco. In 2015 all shops will need to take tobacco off view. Tobacco can no longer be sold from vending machines, which has stopped many young people under 18 accessing smoking.

I do not want to downplay the importance of this policy—we are conscious that it could make an important contribution—but we can do many other things. The reasons why children, in particular, take up smoking are very complex, and are to do with family and social circumstances. One policy alone will not address that. Local authorities have a vital role to play, which is why we have given local government responsibility for public health backed by large ring-fenced budgets—more than £5.4 billion in the next two years. I encourage all hon. Members who have participated in today’s debate to ask tough questions of people locally. I hope that they are talking to their public health directors, health and wellbeing boards and clinical commissioning groups about where tobacco control sits in the armoury of local government. That is why this power has been devolved. The local insight and innovation made possible by that policy will help us to tackle tobacco use at a local level as well as through policies that the Government can put in place.

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[Jane Ellison]

I will move on as I have tried to respond to the hon. Gentleman’s point.

Our local stop smoking services are among the best in the world. The fact is that smokers trying to quit do better if they use them. Research has found that

“English stop smoking services have had an increasing impact in helping smokers to stop in their first 10 years of operation”—

although I hear the challenge that has been made on the recent drop—

“and have successfully reached disadvantaged groups.”

The latter are obviously particularly important from a public health point of view.

This year, Public Health England has launched a new dedicated youth marketing programme. This marketing strategy aims at discouraging a range of risk behaviours, including tobacco use, among our young people. In this financial year, that is worth more than £1.5 million.

[Barbara Keeley]

The Minister does not seem to be saying what the Government will do about the decline in quitting—the fact that stop smoking services are not reaching people to the extent that they should be. Does that concern her, and is she going to do something about it?

[Jane Ellison]

That is something that I will look at carefully, but I point out to the hon. Lady that obviously this issue now falls under the remit of Public Health England. It will be on my agenda for the next meeting with the chief executive, and I will write to her after I have had that discussion, if that would be helpful.

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[Bob Blackman]

This being the first time I have spoken when you have been in the Chair, Madam Deputy Speaker, I congratulate you on your election to high office.

We have heard today from 11 Back Benchers, as well as the two Front Benchers, and hon. Members have put their arguments strongly. Clearly, I am wholly in favour of standardised packaging for tobacco products, and the quicker it is done the better. Three arguments have been advanced against its rapid introduction. The first concerns the illicit trade. In reality, the illicit trade continues now, but the evidence is that through the security marking of packaging and cigarettes themselves, and with greater vigilance from our customs and excise people, the illicit trade can be stamped on hard. The tobacco industry, which is against standardised packaging, uses the illicit trade as an excuse.

Secondly, we have heard that the big tobacco companies would use the money they currently spend on packaging to cut the cost of tobacco. My answer is to increase the tax. We must ensure that tobacco is expensive so that people are discouraged from purchasing it. Thirdly, the key argument from those who oppose the measure seems to be, “Let’s delay and prevaricate. Let’s wait and see what happens. Let’s wait for everyone else to decide, and then take action ourselves.” As we have said, 300,000 under-18s start smoking every year, so the longer we delay, the greater the number of people taking up smoking and dying prematurely.

[Barbara Keeley]

I imagine that the hon. Gentleman was as disappointed as me to hear the Minister’s response. There is a tendency among Health Ministers to say that everything is at arm’s length. Like me, I hope that he rejects the Minister’s claim that responsibility lies with Public Health England, local government and Members themselves. The action we need is action that only the Government can take. Does he support that view?