Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the detailed responses from EU Member States to the UK's notification to the EU of proposed regulations for standardised packaging of tobacco products.

The draft regulations for standardised packaging of tobacco were notified to the European Commission under the Technical Standards Directive (Directive 98/34/EC) on 29 August 2014. 11 member states provided detailed opinions in response to the United Kingdom notification. These detailed opinions are now being considered carefully. The UK will respond to the detailed opinions in due course, as specified by the Technical Standards Directive.