Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what the latest date is by which his Department could table regulatory proposals on the standardised packaging of tobacco under the Children and Families Act 2014, if they were to be voted on before the end of this Parliament.

The Government has not yet made a final decision on whether to introduce standardised packaging of tobacco products. The Government continues to consider carefully all issues relevant to the introduction of standardised packaging of tobacco products and a decision will be taken in due course. The United Kingdom notified the draft regulations under the EU Technical Standards Directive (Directive 98/34/EC). Pursuant to this Directive, the regulations cannot be made until after the notification ‘standstill’ period has ended on 2 March 2015. If the Government does decide to proceed with standardised packaging, a decision will then be made as to the appropriate Parliamentary timetable for the proposed regulations.