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** 5 November 2020
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** UK
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** London Hammersmith: Philip Morris Limited sanctioned over failure to comply with packaging regulations (#1)
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** Study: Tobacco sales ban near child spaces could cut provision by 70% (#2)
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** International
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** North Korea bans smoking in public places to safeguard hygienic living (#3)
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** Parliamentary Activity
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** Parliamentary Questions (#4)
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** UK
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**
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** Failure to comply with packaging regulations has led to a tobacco company handing over nearly £3,500 to charity. Philip Morris Limited in Hammersmith Grove London neglected to register as a packaging producer as required by law during 2014. This also meant it failed to recover and recycle waste materials used during its business, as would be required of registered companies.

As a result, the company has paid £3,438.11 to UK charity Trees for Cities, in what is known as an enforcement undertaking (EU). The company also had to pay costs, including those of the Environment Agency. The money will go to supporting the work of the charity, which has completed 34 planting projects in 26 cities.

On discovering the oversight in late 2015, the company worked with the Valpak packaging producer compliance scheme to register for the 2015 compliance year and submit an enforcement undertaking offer for the year that was missed. It worked with Valpak to make a pro-rata calculation of the amount of packaging handled in 2013, to determine the financial value of its enforcement undertaking.

The company has now made compliance with the packaging regulations part of the role of the Supply Chain Analyst.

Source: Government Opportunities, 4 November 2020

See also: GOV.UK - London Hammersmith tobacco company overlooks packaging obligations ([link removed])
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** Researchers from the University of Glasgow and the University of Edinburgh teamed up to examine ways of reducing the provision of cigarettes and similar products in Scotland. They created virtual maps of the country’s 9,030 registered tobacco retailers and examined how different policies would affect their numbers.

The report also looked at how new approaches might affect existing inequalities in tobacco availability. Previous work has shown that Scotland’s most deprived areas have more shops selling tobacco per head of population than wealthier neighbourhoods. The team studied the impact of regulating the type of shops allowed to sell tobacco, or where it can be sold. Researchers also looked at the effects of introducing caps on numbers of retailers in certain areas.

Findings show that stopping tobacco sales within 300 metres of child spaces – including schools, playgrounds and playing fields – would lead to a 70.7% cut in the number of licensed outlets selling tobacco. They also found that several measures could lower the number and density of outlets and reduce inequalities in availability. These include stopping sales in small local shops - where tobacco products are most often bought - or restricting sales to supermarkets only. However, the researchers found restricting sales to either off-licences or pharmacies could increase inequalities in availability.

Lead author of this study Dr Fiona Caryl, of the University of Glasgow, said: “Measures to reduce tobacco availability should form part of the Scottish Government’s efforts to create a tobacco-free generation by 2034. However, it is important to understand which policies would be most effective while ensuring social inequalities aren’t being exacerbated.”

Source: Evening Express, 5 November 2020

See also: Journal of Tobacco Control - Socioeconomic inequalities in children’s exposure to tobacco retailing based on individual-level GPS data in Scotland ([link removed])
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** International
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** North Korea’s supreme people’s assembly has introduced smoking bans in some public places to provide citizens with “hygienic living environments.” The state media KCNA quoted the legislation as saying the tobacco-prohibition law aims to protect the lives and health of North Koreans by tightening the legal and social controls on the production and sale of cigarettes.

The law stipulates that smoking is banned in specific venues, such as political and ideological education centres, theatres and cinemas and medical and public health facilities, KCNA said.

North Korea has high rates of smoking tobacco, with 43.9% of the male population smokers as of 2013, according to the World Health Organization.

Source: The Guardian, 5 November 2020

See also: Reuters - North Korea prohibits smoking in public spaces: state media ([link removed])
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** Parliamentary Activity
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**
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** PQ1: Tobacco: Smuggling – Treasury

Asked by Martyn Day Scottish National Party, Linlithgow and East Falkirk

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to tackle the flow of counterfeit cigarettes and tobacco products into the UK.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury

Since 2000, the government’s anti- illicit tobacco strategy has successfully reduced the cigarette tax gap from 22% in 2000-01 to 9% in 2019-20, and for hand rolling tobacco (HRT) from 61% to 34%. Key to this success has been the continual refresh of the strategy based on HMRC’s reassessment of the risks and any emerging threats.

In 2015, HMRC and Border Force published the latest refreshed strategy ‘Tackling Illicit Tobacco- leaf to light’. This stated the government’s intention to take the fight against illicit tobacco wider, joining up interests across UK government and a variety of partner agencies, including local authority Trading Standards teams, the police and other government departments.

This approach has seen a sustained effort against all types of illicit tobacco. In the year 2018-19, over 1.3bn illicit cigarettes and 140 tonnes of illicit HRT were seized and there were over 270 convictions for tobacco related offences.

Measures specifically targeted at counterfeit tobacco include the introduction of the Raw Tobacco Approval and Tobacco Machinery Licensing Schemes. HMRC has also introduced a track and trace system for tobacco products and new on-pack authenticity features. These initiatives make it more difficult and costly to counterfeit tobacco in the UK and for any form of illicit tobacco to enter our legitimate supply chains.

However, the government is not complacent, organised criminals continually respond to enforcement activity by diversifying, but we remain confident in HMRC’s ability to recognise and respond to this under the existing strategy. The government will keep the need for a strategy refresh under review.

Source: Hansard, 2 November 2020

[link removed]

PQ2: Tobacco: Smuggling – Treasury

Asked by Martyn Day Scottish National Party, Linlithgow and East Falkirk

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what steps his Department is taking to ensure that the traceability system for tobacco products is independent from tobacco industry influence.

Answered by Kemi Badenoch Exchequer Secretary to the Treasury

Details of meetings between HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) and the tobacco industry are published on GOV.UK. These include discussions on points of detail on the track and trace system. All meetings with the tobacco industry are conducted in line with the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, in particular in accordance with Article 5.3. HMRC has no plans to publish minutes of these meetings as they may contain taxpayer or commercially sensitive information.

The implementing legislation for the tobacco track and trace system specifies strict and comprehensive criteria for independence from the tobacco industry. The service provider of the track and trace system needs to demonstrate to HMRC that they satisfy the independence criteria both before and during the period they provide the service. HMRC has processes in place to ensure these criteria are met.

Source: Hansard, 2 November 2020

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ASH Daily News is a digest of published news on smoking-related topics. ASH is not responsible for the content of external websites. ASH does not necessarily endorse the material contained in this bulletin.

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