From:Packaging News


The controversial law on standardised tobacco packaging could be passed by MPs today.

A House of Commons Delegated Legislation Committee debated the measure on Monday and voted in favour of the regulations with Conservative MP Nick de Bois  the only member to oppose. The next step is the vote by MPs in the House of Commons. The House of Lords will also have to approve the measures.

Last week, Packaging News reported that the vote was going ahead despite warnings that a track and trace code at the bottom of packs, known as Codentify, would be forcibly removed if the legislation was passed in its current state.

The issue was raised by the Committee in Monday’s debate with Health Minister Jane Ellison, saying that it was on the government’s radar.

Ellison said: “For the benefit of the Committee, Codentify is a voluntary security feature developed and controlled by the tobacco industry. HMRC is starting to make use of that system to assist in identifying illicit tobacco. We are working across government to ensure that anti-counterfeit systems that are useful to HMRC and other enforcement agencies now and in the future can continue to feature on standardised packs, which will require such systems to be put on a statutory footing. That has not been overlooked; we are aware of it.”

The minister claimed that the “print industry” had “known for some time that standardised packaging has been under discussion” and said that it had not been “sprung” on the sector. “It has had a chance to consider how to respond,” said Ellison.