Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what is the legal status in United Kingdom law of the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control Protocol and the Local Government Declaration on Tobacco Control.

The World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) is an international treaty that the United Kingdom signed on 16 June 2003, ratified on 16 December 2004 and which entered into force for the UK on 16 March 2005. The UK has therefore consented to be bound under international law by the rights and obligations set out in the FCTC. More information on the FCTC, including the text of the treaty is at on the web at:

www.who.int/fctc

The Local Government Declaration on Tobacco Control is an initiative of the Smokefree Action Coalition. Local councils are invited to voluntarily sign the Declaration, as “a statement of a council’s commitment to ensure tobacco control is part of mainstream public health work and commits councils to taking comprehensive action to address the harm from smoking”. More information on the Declaration is on the web at:

www.smokefreeaction.org.uk/declaration