Lords debates tobacco regulations
5 July 2016
Members of the Lords debated three regret motions on issues raised by the Tobacco and Related Product Regulations 2016 on Monday 4 July.
About the Tobacco and Related Product Regulations 2016
These regulations define the law around:
- the reporting of tobacco ingredients and emissions
- the size of health warnings on tobacco packaging, and prohibit misleading descriptors such as 'organic' or 'natural'
- prohibit characterising flavours, such as menthol
- provide prior notification of tobacco products on the market
- regulate the marketing, labelling and product standards of electronic cigarettes
- regulate the marketing and labelling of herbal cigarettes
The following members of the House laid regret motions:
- Lord Callanan (Conservative), on the grounds that restrictions of advertising of vaping devices were devised before evidence had accumulated that vaping was enabling individuals to quit smoking.
- Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Labour), on the grounds that these regulations will not be accompanied by a public information campaign to reassure smokers that electronic cigarettes are less harmful than normal smoking.
- Baroness Walmsley (Liberal Democrat), on the grounds that an advertising ban on electronic cigarettes would hinder promotion of such devices as a way of assisting smokers to stop smoking tobacco.
How do these regulations become law?
These provisions on tobacco and related products are proposed through regulations, which are a Statutory Instrument (SI).
The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 implement the majority of provisions of the revised Tobacco Products Directive 2014/40/EC: European Directives are often transposed into law using the negative resolution procedure, which allows regulations to become law after a stated time unless a member of either House wins a vote to object.
The Tobacco and Related Product Regulations were previously debated by members of the Lords in Grand Committee on 10 May 2016, and came into force on 20 May 2016, these motions are to explore the policy intention.
The full text of the Regulations are published on the legislation.gov.uk website with an Explanatory Memorandum.
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