G/TBT/N/GBR/24  
 
3 September 2014  
(14-5001)  Page: 1/4  
Committee on Technical Barriers to Trade  Original: English  
 
  NOTIFICATION 
The following notification is being circulated in accordance with Article 10.6 
 
1. Notifying Member: UNITED KINGDOM 
If applicable, name of local government involved (Article 3.2 and 7.2):    
2. Agency responsible: Tobacco Control Programme,  Department of Health 
Name and address (including telephon e and fax numbers, email and website 
addresses, if available) of agency or authority designated to handle comments 
regarding the notification shall be indicated if different from above : 
Tobacco Control Programme 
Department of Health 
Wellington House 133-155 Waterloo Road London SE1 8UG 
Telephone: +44 20 7210 4850 
Email: TobaccoPackaging@dh.gsi.gov.uk  
Website: http://www.doh.gov.uk  
3. Notified under Article 2.9.2 [ X ], 2.10.1 [   ], 5.6.2 [   ], 5.7.1 [   ], other:  
4. Products covered (HS or CCCN where applic able, otherwise national tariff heading. 
ICS numbers may be provided in addition, where applicable): Tobacco and 
manufacture tobacco substitutes (HS 24). The draft Regulations relate to the retail 
packaging of hand rolling tobacco and the retail packaging and appearance of cigarettes as 
well as the product presentation of all tobacco products. 
5. Title, number of pages and langua ge(s) of the notified document: The Standardised 
Packaging of Tobacco Product Regulations (23 pages, in English) 
6. Description of content: The draft Regulations relate to the retail packaging of hand 
rolling tobacco and the retail packaging and appearance of cigarettes.  
The draft regulations would not affect other labelling requirements for tobacco products 
such as health warnings and fiscal marks or features such as authentication markings and 
security features. The provisions of the re gulations only apply to the areas of the 
packaging remaining after those requirements have been applied. 
The draft regulations would require the use of specified standard colours for all external 
and internal packaging and would only permit specified text in a standard typeface. The 
draft regulations would have the following effect for packs of cigarettes and pouches of hand-rolling tobacco: 
Pack Colour (Regulations 3 and 7) 
 The outside surfaces of packs (external pack aging) would be drab brown with a matt 
finish. 
 The inside surfaces of packs (internal pa ckaging) would be white or drab brown. G/TBT/N/GBR/24 
 
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  Permitted text and features (Schedules 1 and 3) 
 Text on packaging would be in a grey Helvetica typeface, with a specified maximum 
size. 
 Brand and variant names may appear once on each of the front, top and bottom 
surfaces of cigarette packs, once on each of the front and back surfaces and on the 
surface hidden beneath the flap of hand-rolling tobacco pouches. 
 A bar code may appear once on a pack or pouch to facilitate sale and stock control. 
 A producer's contact details may appear once on a pack or pouch. 
 The pack or pouch may include a measurement mark and a trade description (for 
example: "20 cigarettes" or "30g hand-rolling tobacco"). 
 If a pack of hand-rolling tobacco includes filters or cigarette papers inside the pack, 
then the pack may have text giving th is information (for example: "includes 
cigarette papers and filters" or "includes cigarette papers"). 
Cigarette packets (Regulation 4) 
 Cigarette packets must be cuboid and made of either a carton or soft material. If 
packets can be re-closed or re-sealed, then they must either have a flip-tip lid or be 
a shoulder box with a hinged lid. 
 A pack of cigarettes must contain a minimum of 20 cigarettes. 
 Packets of Hand-rolling tobacco (Regulation 8) 
 Hand-rolling tobacco packets must be cuboid, cylindrical or in the form of a pouch. 
 A pack of hand-rolling tobacco must contain at least 30 grams of tobacco. 
 Other provisions (Schedules 3 and 4 and Regulations 11 and 12) 
 Pack surfaces must be smooth, with no embossing or irregularities of texture. 
 Wrappers must be completely clear and transparent. 
 Inserts or other additional material not integral to the packaging would be prohibited 
 Individual cigarettes (Regulation 5) 
 Cigarettes would be white with a cork effect or white tip and may have text 
indicating the brand name (in a specified typeface and location). 
The draft regulations would also implement Ar ticles 13 and 14 of the Tobacco Products 
Directive (Directive 2014/40/EU) (see Regulation s 4, 8 and 10 of the draft regulations). 
A web link to an illustration of what a cigarette pack could look like if the draft regulations were to be introduced has been included at section 8 of this notification. 
7. Objective and rationale, including the nature of urgent problems where applicable: 
Tobacco use remains one of the most significant challenges to public health in the United Kingdom. Smoking is the primary cause of preventable morbidity and premature death, 
accounting each year for over 100,000 deaths in the United Kingdom. One out of two long-
term smokers will die of a smoking-related disease. Due to exposure to secondhand 
smoke, smoking is harmful not only to smokers, but also to the people around them. 
Around 20% of adults in the United Kingdom smoke.  
The Department of Health and the Devolved Administrations of the United Kingdom want 
to take action to reduce the uptake of smoking by young people. Smoking is an addiction largely taken up in childhood and adolescence, so it is crucial to reduce the number of 
young people taking up smoking in the first place. The report of the Chantler Review 
stated that, although the number of children taking up smoking has been falling since the 
1990s, an estimated 207,000 children aged 11-15 still take up smoking each year in the 
United Kingdom. A key aspect in deciding whether to introduce standardised packaging will 
be the potential benefit for the health and wellbeing of young people. 
The United Kingdom is a party to the World Health Organization's Framework Convention 
on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The FCTC is the world's first public health treaty. It places 
obligations on all parties to meet the treaty objective to "reduce continually and substantially the prevalence of tobacco us e and exposure to tobacco smoke" and to 
implement comprehensive tobacco control strategies. Since the United Kingdom became a 
party to the treaty in 2004, the Government has taken its FCTC obligations very seriously. 
Guidelines for the implementation of the FCTC encourage parties to consider adopting measures for standardised packaging. G/TBT/N/GBR/24 
 
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  The Department of Health and the Devolved Administrations of the United Kingdom each 
have tobacco control plans in place. If introduced, standardised packaging would form an element within these wider comprehensive strategies to contribute to reducing rates of 
smoking. 
A consultation on these regulations conclude d on 7 August 2014. The UK Government has 
not yet taken a final decision to introduce the Regulations. 
The objectives of a policy for standardised packaging would be to improve public health 
by: 
 discouraging people from starting to use tobacco products 
 encouraging people to give up using tobacco products 
 helping people who have given up, or are tr ying to give up, using tobacco products 
not to start using them again 
 reducing the appeal or attractiveness of tobacco products 
 reducing the potential for elements of the packaging of tobacco products other than 
health warnings to detract from the effectiveness of those warnings 
 reducing opportunities for the packaging of tobacco products to mislead consumers 
about the effects of using them 
 reducing opportunities for the packaging of tobacco products to create false 
perceptions about the nature of such products 
 having an effect on attitudes, beliefs, in tentions and behaviours relating to the 
reduction in use of tobacco products 
8. Relevant documents:   
a) Consultation on the introduction of regulations for standardised packaging of tobacco 
products (2014) https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/syst em/uploads/attachment_data/file/323922/C
ons_doc.pdf  
Please note that the draft regulations submitte d alongside this notification are an amended 
and updated version of the draft regulations contained at Annex B of the consultation 
referred to at (a). The latest version of the draft regulations, and the version that should 
be used, is the version submitted with this notification. Please do not refer to the older version of the draft regulations contained at Annex B of the consultation. 
b) Illustration of a standardised cigarette pack (2014) 
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/syst em/uploads/attachment_data/file/323980/I
mage_of_standardised_pack_for_consultation.jpg  
c) Standardised packaging of tobacco: Report of the independent review undertaken by Sir 
Cyril Chantler (2014) 
http://www.kcl.ac.uk/health/10035-TSO-290 1853-Chantler-Review-ACCESSIBLE.PDF  
d) Plain Tobacco Packaging: A systematic review (2012) 
http://phrc.lshtm.ac.uk/papers/PHRC_006_Final_Report.pdf  
e) Plain Tobacco Packaging Research, an update (2013) 
http://www.stir.ac.uk/media/schools/manage ment/documents/Plain %20Packaging%20Stu
dies%20Update.pdf   
f) Standardized Packaging of Tobacco Products, Evidence Review, D Hammond, (2014) - 
http://health.gov.ie/blog/publications/standardised-packaging-d-hammond/  
Other documents: 
g) Consultation on standardised packaging of tobacco products (2012) 
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/syst em/uploads/attachment_data/file/170568/d
h_133575.pdf  
h) Healthy Lives, Healthy People: A tobacco control plan for England (2011) 
https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/syst em/uploads/attachment_data/file/213757/d
h_124960.pdf  G/TBT/N/GBR/24 
 
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  i) World Health Organisation, Guidelines fo r implementation of Article 11 of the WHO 
Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (Packaging and labelling of tobacco products) http://www.who.int/fctc/guidelines/article_11.pdf?ua=1  
j) Directive 2014/40/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 3 April 2014 
(Revised EU Tobacco Products Directive) http://ec.europa.eu/health/tobacco/docs/dir_201440_en.pdf  
k) Consumer Protection Act 1987 http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1987/43  
9. Proposed date of adoption:   To be determined 
Proposed date of entry into force:   To be determined   
10. Final date for comments: 90 days from notification 
11. Texts available from: Nati onal enquiry point [X] or address, telephone and fax 
numbers and email and website addresses, if available, of other body:   
UK TBT National Enquiry Point 
Trade Policy Unit 
Department for Business Innovation and Skills 
1 Victoria Street 
London SW1H 0ET 
http://members.wto.org/crnattachments/2014/tbt/gbr/14_3927_00_e.pdf