From:Packaging Europe News

The UK government has indicated it will ask MPs to vote on a law introducing plain cigarette packaging in England and Wales before the UK general election in May this year. If passed, the law would come into force in 2016. Such a law would be the first in the EU and the second passed globally by a developed economy, following Australia's lead in 2012.

Major opposition parties had pressed the government to introduce such legislation sooner and will inevitably vote in favour of the new law.

The government had initially postponed action on cigarette packaging on the basis that it wanted to study the evidence in greater detail. Following a review of the public health implications of standardised packaging last year by Sir Cyril Chantler, Public Health Minister Jane Ellison has announced that the government is satisfied the move is likely to have a positive impact on public health, particularly for children.

"We cannot be complacent. We all know the damage smoking does to health," she said."This government is completely committed to protecting children from the harm that tobacco causes."

Predictably, health advocates have largely welcomed the move as an important step towards protecting public health, while the tobacco industry and free market lobby groups have respectively attacked it as lacking a basis in evidence and as an acceptable intrusion into consumer choice.

Additional tobacco regulations will be introduced across the whole of the EU next year. The Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU), coming into force in May 2016, requires larger sized health warnings on packets, as well as banning flavourings.