Consultation outcome

Mandating quit information messages inside tobacco packs: consultation

Updated 5 November 2024

Introduction

The Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID) in England (which is part of the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC)), the Directorate for Population Health in the Scottish Government, the Health and Social Services Group in Wales and the Department of Health in Northern Ireland are each responsible for improving public health, including reducing tobacco use by implementing comprehensive tobacco control strategies.

Governments across the UK are exploring whether they should take further policy action to reduce tobacco use by mandating a variety of positive quit themed information messages and advice (also called pack inserts) inside tobacco packets to help more smokers quit.

OHID is leading this UK-wide consultation on behalf of all the devolved nations.

From the existing international evidence and practice, we know that introducing positive messaging to quit with advice how to inside tobacco packets can help more smokers quit smoking.

This consultation is seeking the views of interested people, businesses and organisations on this policy initiative.

The UK government and devolved administrations will only make any decisions on requiring pack inserts after fully considering:

• the consultation responses we receive
• the evidence provided in those responses
• a further review of the international evidence base

We invite your responses to the consultation questions below and on the questions related to the consultation draft impact assessment, which is published alongside this consultation.

Policy objectives

OHID and the devolved administrations have broad policy objectives to improve public health by:

• discouraging young people from taking up smoking
• encouraging people to quit smoking
• helping people who have quit, or who are trying to quit, to avoid relapse back to smoking
• reducing people’s exposure to second-hand smoke from tobacco products

To help us achieve these public health policy objectives, we are leading this consultation to explore whether mandating pack inserts inside tobacco packets or containers could:

• encourage more smokers to quit by providing information on the benefits of quitting, alongside advice and available support
• have a positive effect on smoking-related attitudes, beliefs, intentions and behaviours, particularly among children and young people
• reduce the number of smokers and so reduce second-hand smoke exposure

The harms caused by smoking

Supporting people to stop smoking is one of the most strongly evidence based and effective interventions that we can take to prevent ill health because it:

• improves public health
• reduces the burden on the NHS
• provides substantial benefits to our workforce and the economy

The government is committed to reducing the harms caused by tobacco and has made good long-term progress in reducing smoking rates. The Office for National Statistics report Adult smoking habits in the UK: 2021 shows that the adult smoking rate in the UK is the lowest on record, at 13.3%. The smoking rate is:

• 13% in England
• 14.8% in Scotland
• 14.1% in Wales
• 13.8% in Northern Ireland

Across the UK, 1 in 7 adults still smoke, which is around 6.6 million people. Tobacco remains the single leading preventable cause of illness and mortality, with smoking responsible for:

• about 64,000 deaths per year in England (as reported by OHID in Local tobacco control profiles)
• 8,260 deaths per year in Scotland (as reported by the Scottish Public Health Observatory’s information on smoking attributable deaths)
• 5,583 deaths per year in Wales (as reported by the Public Health Wales Smoking in Wales report)
• 2,200 deaths per year in Northern Ireland (as reported by the Northern Ireland Department of Health’s tobacco control information)

Up to 2 out of 3 lifelong smokers will die from smoking (Banks and others 2015). Being a smoker substantially increases the risk of heart disease, heart attack and stroke, and 72% of lung cancer cases in the UK are caused by smoking (Brown and others 2018). Smoking has an impact on the NHS, resulting in nearly 4% of all hospital admissions (OHID analysis), and the Action on Smoking and Health and SPECTRUM representation to HM Treasury’s Spring Budget 2023 estimates a cost to the UK public purse of £21 billion every year.

Smoking is often an addiction that starts in childhood. Guidance on smoking and quitting in England shows that two-thirds of people start smoking before the age of 18. Yet over half of smokers want to quit. We know that children are 4 times more likely to smoke if their parents smoke and that children from poor backgrounds are also more likely to start smoking, and more likely to start smoking early.

So, the more we can do to help adults quit, the more we will prevent future generations from taking up smoking, as well as reducing children’s exposure to harmful second-hand smoke.

Action on harms caused by smoking

Over the past few decades, we have legislated to:

• make tobacco less attractive
• educate people of the harms from using tobacco
• deter the uptake of smoking by young people

On 11 April 2023, the Rt Hon Neil O’Brien MP, the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Primary Care and Public Health, made a speech on cutting smoking and stopping kids vaping. In it, he announced a package of measures to help more people to stop smoking and realise the government’s ambition in England to be smokefree by 2030. This included a commitment to consult on mandating pack inserts inside tobacco packets.

Tobacco packaging regulations to help prevent harm

The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 and the Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015 (SPOT) have strengthened our regulatory framework further. These regulations introduced new graphic picture and health text warnings and plain (standardised) packaging (cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco) on the outside of tobacco packaging.

In 2022, the government published post implementation reviews of both sets of regulations to assess if they had achieved their original objectives. They were:

• The Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016: post-implementation review
• The Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Products Regulations 2015: post-implementation review

The reviews concluded that the regulations continue to meet their original objectives, including discouraging youth uptake and helping smokers to quit, and that they should be retained.

Pack inserts would complement these existing regulations. They would provide an opportunity to introduce positive messages and provide more advice and support directly to smokers to help them quit.

SPOT prohibits any form of inserts in packs of cigarettes. This measure was introduced to prevent tobacco companies from placing promotional material into packets that may have encouraged and promoted smoking. So, mandating pack inserts that provide support and advice to help smokers quit would require the government to amend SPOT.

Evidence on pack inserts to help smokers quit

To meet our public health policy objectives, we have reviewed the international evidence on pack inserts. This is summarised below and documented in more detail in the accompanying consultation draft impact assessment.

Most of the international evidence focuses on the usefulness and effectiveness of pack inserts in helping smokers to make a quit attempt. This shows positive results. There is less evidence on the role of pack inserts in changing smoking-related attitudes and reducing exposure to second-hand smoke. However, an increase in quit attempts is likely to indirectly support these aims.

An evaluation of the Canadian policy of pack inserts (which had quit tips alongside pictures) analysed data from an online consumer panel of Canadian adult smokers (Thrasher and others 2015). The study found that between 26% and 31% of smokers had read the inserts at least once in the past month. A smaller proportion, between 16% and 19%, reported reading them a few times or more in the past month. The study concluded that reading inserts a few times or more in the past month was significantly associated with increased likelihood of making a quit attempt.

An online survey to test the perceptions of pack inserts among young adult smokers in the UK (Moodie and others 2016) found that:

• 50% said they would read the inserts
• 61% thought inserts were an effective way to provide information about quitting
• 53% agreed that inserts would make you think more about quitting
• 52% agreed that inserts might help if you decided to quit
• 53% agreed that inserts were an effective way of encouraging smokers to quit

Further evidence from focus groups in Scotland found similar support for pack inserts (Moodie 2018). Across 20 focus groups split by age, gender, and social class, some participants suggested that pack inserts could encourage them to stop smoking. Participants thought that pack inserts have the potential to alter the behaviour of others, potential future smokers and those wanting to quit.

This evidence suggests that pack inserts will increase the likelihood of making a quit attempt for people who read them. The effect is found to increase with the frequency of reading the pack inserts, and in studies from Canada this effect remained for 2 years (Thrasher and others 2015).

To further develop our UK knowledge and evidence base, DHSC has commissioned research led by the University of Stirling. The research is exploring a variety of themed inserts with messages aimed at increasing smokers’ belief that they can quit and that they will benefit from doing so. The themes include:

• physical health
• mental health
• conception and pregnancy
• financial benefits
• stop-smoking aids (including vapes)
• quitting in older age
• perseverance
• cravings

This work is expected to complete by the end of 2023 and will help us further understand the type of messages and design that appeals to a UK audience. The research will also test the use of digital communication such as QR codes, alongside text and pictures, to see whether these are useful ways to help smokers quickly access quit information and support.

Questions

What effect (if any) do you think pack inserts will have to improve public health?

• Smokers will be encouraged to quit
• Young people will be discouraged from taking up smoking
• Second hand smoke exposure will be reduced (given the reduced number of smokers)
• There will be no effect
• Other

If you have examples or cases of tobacco users quitting as a result of reading pack inserts in tobacco products, please provide details.

If you have examples to suggest digital communication is useful to help people seek advice to stop smoking, please provide details.

Is there additional evidence and experience internationally on the use of pack inserts to promote switch to vaping, nicotine replacement therapy or quitting support which could help inform policy development?

• Yes
• No

Please provide more information.

Countries currently using pack inserts

Canada

Canada was the first country to introduce pack inserts (known there as health information messaging (HIM)) over 20 years ago. Canada uses a range of 8 themed quit messaging cards (or leaflets), each containing pictures and written advice, along with support on how to quit for cigarettes and little cigars.

Figure 1 shows 6 examples of HIM cards used in Canada. They each feature a range of colours, pictures and written information and advice on quitting smoking. Each card is based around a positive theme for why people should quit smoking, including that quitting:

• increases life expectancy and improves quality of life
• is a learning experience and can take several attempts before a person succeeds
• improves lung health
• improves the chances of a pregnant woman having a healthy baby
• can bring on strong cravings, but that it is part of the quitting process
• saves money

Figure 1: examples of pack inserts from Canada

Source: Health Canada

In 2019, Canada introduced standardised packaging in cigarettes and made ‘slide and shell’ packaging mandatory for cigarette packs. A BMJ journal article on tobacco control explains what slide and shell packaging is. HIM is now mandated as part of the internal cigarette packaging design rather than a separate leaflet inside cigarette packs. Hand rolling tobacco tubs and little cigar packets still use HIM leaflets.

In June 2022, Canada announced regulatory plans to introduce a new set of 13 HIM designs. The plans also include regulating cigarette packing requirements further by extending the inside front flap dimensions of slide and shell packs so that smokers will see the full HIM each time they open their packet of cigarettes.

Israel

Israel has also introduced pack inserts in smoking products packaging to warn people from the harms of smoking and provide more information to help more smokers to quit. This provision was included in the Prohibition of Advertising and Restriction of Marketing of Tobacco and Smoking Products Law, 1983 (as amended).

Australia

The Australian Government has recently announced its intention to introduce health promotion inserts in tobacco products as part of its National Tobacco Strategy 2023 to 2030.

Pack insert requirements: further information

Both the Canadian and Israeli pack insert requirements are set out in legislation that regulate matters such as:

• content
• size
• where they can be placed in smoked tobacco packaging

The insert messages all include generic advice on where to receive further support to quit.

In Canada there is also a requirement to rotate a variety of positive messages about quitting over time. The intention is to maximise their impact to support more smokers to quit.

In both countries, the costs of producing inserts inside the packs falls on manufacturers, with the relevant government department hosting the insert designs for industry to access.

How pack inserts could be implemented in the UK

Framework Convention on Tobacco Control: article 11 guidelines

In 2004, the UK became a party to the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC). The FCTC is the world’s first public health treaty and obliges parties to meet the treaty objective to “reduce continually and substantially the prevalence of tobacco use and exposure to tobacco smoke” and to implement comprehensive tobacco control strategies.

Article 11 of the FCTC outlines obligations for parties relating to the packaging and labelling of tobacco products. To help parties implement these obligations, WHO has produced guidelines for implementing article 11. The guidelines propose measures that parties can use to increase the effectiveness of their tobacco packaging and labelling. These include introducing health warnings and messages, which can be applied to pack inserts.

Proposed conditions for the UK to mandate pack inserts

Using the principles in the article 11 guidelines, we have a suggested set of conditions for UK pack inserts.

If SPOT is amended to require pack inserts, we suggest that these would be the detailed requirements that apply to pack inserts. This will ensure that all pack inserts comply with the policy and it will provide consistency to UK smokers about the pack inserts’ design and messages.

The conditions may include, but are not limited to:

• defining which tobacco products pack inserts should be used in
• setting out the type and size of font, colour, layout with dimensions and whether to include pictures
• defining the location of the insert inside tobacco packaging
• defining the specific information to use on where to seek more help to quit
• allowing a suitable transition period for suppliers for when inserts must appear on the UK market
• outlining that central government would lead on the research and design of the inserts and host the insert graphics for industry to access
• providing a selection of inserts to be rotated
• ensuring that industry covers the costs to produce and places inserts in their tobacco products
• outlining penalties to manufacturers if a pack does not include an insert
• outlining the responsible body to enforce pack inserts, which would be local trading standards

We welcome feedback on these conditions and any further requirements that respondents think we should consider.

Questions

Which of the following suggested conditions do you think should apply to pack inserts?

• Defining which tobacco products pack inserts should be used in
• Setting out the type and size of font, colour, layout with dimensions and whether to include pictures
• Defining the location of the insert inside tobacco packaging
• Defining the specific information to use on where to seek more help to quit
• Allowing a suitable transition period for suppliers for when inserts must appear on the UK market
• Outlining that central government would lead on the research and design of the inserts and host the insert graphics for industry to access
• Providing a selection of inserts to be rotated
• Ensuring that industry cover the costs to produce and place inserts in their tobacco products
• Outlining penalties to manufacturers if a pack does not include an insert
• Outlining the responsible body to enforce pack inserts, which would be local trading standards

If you agree that there should be a suitable transition period for suppliers for inserts to appear on the UK market, what do you think that transition period should be?

• 3 months
• 6 months
• 12 months

Are there any other conditions that you think could be applied if the government were to mandate pack inserts?

• Yes
• No

Please explain what conditions you think should be applied.

Scope and location of pack inserts

Tobacco used in the UK

There are a variety of smoked tobacco products on the UK market including:

• cigarettes
• hand rolling tobacco
• pipe tobacco
• cigars
• cigarillos

In the UK, most smokers use cigarettes, with the next most popular product being hand rolling tobacco. Although not as popular as smoked tobacco, there are also smokeless tobacco products such as chewed tobacco, sniffing tobacco and more recently, non-combustible tobacco such as heated tobacco.

Which tobacco products could include pack inserts

There may be practical difficulties for some tobacco products to include pack inserts given their unique packaging designs. The evidence base on the usefulness of inserts has mainly been tested on smokers who use smoked tobacco. However, we would welcome views and evidence about whether all tobacco products should be covered and if there would be barriers to doing so.

Accompanying this consultation, we have published a draft impact assessment that looks at several options for implementing pack inserts into a range of smoked tobacco products. You can find a summary of the associated costs and benefits of each option in the section ‘Options for introducing pack inserts’ below. The options are as follows.

Option 1: not to mandate inserts.

Option 2: make it a legal requirement to include inserts in cigarette packs and packs of hand rolling tobacco.

Option 3: make it a legal requirement to include pack inserts in cigarette packs only.

Option 4: make it a legal requirement to include pack inserts into hand rolling tobacco only.

Option 5: make it a legal requirement to include pack inserts in all tobacco products.

Location of pack inserts

There are a variety of ways that the government might mandate to present the inserts inside the tobacco products packets. Current evidence is largely based on separate card inserts placed inside tobacco products which have been effective in other countries.

Other options that may be effective include:

1. Information messages printed on the inside of the tobacco packaging. This would use internal blank spaces in packs where messages could be printed to communicate information.
2. Information messages as part of the internal flap design when a pack is opened, as is the case with new slide and shell packaging for cigarettes in Canada. This would involve information remaining fixed as part of the packaging design and pop up. It would be presented to a smoker each time they take a cigarette from the pack. However, this proposal would likely involve regulatory changes to the way UK tobacco packaging is designed.

We welcome other ideas about presenting information inside the tobacco packaging, with the objective of helping more smokers to quit.

Questions

If the government makes pack inserts mandatory to help smokers quit, what products do you think it should be applied to?

• None (do not introduce pack inserts)
• Cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco
• Cigarettes only
• Hand rolling tobacco only
• All tobacco products (smoked and smokeless)

Where do you think the messages to quit smoking should be placed?

• Insert cards in tobacco packs
• Information messages printed on the inside of the tobacco packaging
• Information messages that are part of the flap design when a pack is opened

If you have any other ideas about how to include information inside tobacco packaging, to help more smokers quit, please explain your ideas.

Other considerations for mandating pack inserts

There may be other considerations associated with mandating pack inserts. Through this consultation, we want to understand what these considerations could be, alongside any supporting evidence. In particular, we are seeking views on whether introducing inserts would have:

• trade implications
• competition implications
• legal implications
• costs or benefits for retailers or manufacturers
• implications for the availability of, and demand for, illicit tobacco (both smuggled and counterfeit)
• implications for cross-border shopping
• any other unintended consequences

We know there are potential environmental impacts on mandating pack inserts, such as the littering of loose pack inserts. We also welcome views and evidence on this.

Questions

Do you think insert cards in tobacco products could affect the quality and taste of tobacco products?

• Yes
• No
• Don’t know

If you have environmental concerns about the use of inserts, please explain these and how you think we could mitigate any environmental problems.

Do you think anything should be left to the discretion of the tobacco industry when introducing pack inserts?

• Yes
• No
• Don’t know

Please explain what you think should be left to the discretion of the tobacco industry.

Do you agree or disagree that if the inserts were mandatory, that the tobacco industry should pay for the costs to print these and put them in their tobacco products?

• Agree
• Disagree
• Don’t know

Further information on pack inserts

We would welcome any further information that you think would be helpful for the government to consider when exploring whether to mandate pack inserts inside tobacco packs.

Question

If you have further information for us to consider on mandating pack inserts, please provide this.

Draft impact assessment

We have published a draft impact assessment alongside this consultation. You can find it on the Mandating quit information messages inside tobacco packs consultation page.

In the draft impact assessment, we have estimated likely costs and benefits of mandating pack inserts and its impact on business. We have also suggested some options for mandating pack inserts.

Options for mandating pack inserts

The draft impact assessment looks at several options for implementing pack inserts into a range of smoked tobacco products. We have outlined each of the options and a summary of the associated costs and benefits below.

Option 1: not to mandate inserts

This is the baseline from which other options are assessed against. There are no ongoing interventions to account for. The costs and benefits here are defined to be zero.

Option 2: make it a legal requirement to include inserts in cigarette packs and packs of hand rolling tobacco

The expected costs to introduce tobacco pack inserts into cigarette packs and packs of hand rolling tobacco include:

• losses to the exchequer of £279 million estimated over 10 years of reduced tobacco consumption
• reduced profits for retailers of £23 million and wholesalers of £6 million over 10 years of reduced tobacco consumption
• an extra £116 million to manufacturers over 10 years to produce pack inserts for packs of cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco

To estimate the health benefits of pack inserts we have used evidence from an evaluation in Canada (Thrasher and others 2015). Based on this evaluation and applying an adjustment to avoid overestimating the impact of pack inserts in the UK, we expect 16% of smokers to read the inserts and an increased odds ratio of 1.46 for people who read inserts making a quit attempt. An odds ratio is calculated by working out the odds of an outcome (for example, making an attempt to quit smoking) for people who have been exposed to a certain variable (for example, reading a pack insert) divided by the odds of the same outcome in people who have not been exposed to this variable.

Based on this evidence, we estimate that implementing option 2 will result in an additional 31,525 quitters, providing health benefits to the individuals that quit valued at £1.6 billion.

Option 3: make it a legal requirement to include pack inserts in cigarette packs only

The expected costs to introduce pack inserts into cigarette packs only include:

• losses to the exchequer of £181 million estimated over 10 years of reduced tobacco consumption
• reduced profits for retailers of £15 million and wholesalers of £4 million over 10 years of reduced tobacco consumption
• an extra £95 million to manufacturers over 10 years to produce pack inserts for packs of cigarette packs only

Using the same methodology outlined above for option 2, the expected benefits for implementing option 3 include an additional 19,104 quitters, providing health benefits to the individuals that quit valued at £972 million.

Option 4: make it a legal requirement to include inserts in hand rolling tobacco only

The expected costs to introduce pack inserts into hand rolling tobacco only include:

• losses to the exchequer of £130 million estimated over 10 years of reduced tobacco consumption
• reduced profits for retailers of £9 million and wholesalers of £2 million over 10 years of reduced tobacco consumption
• an extra £21 million to manufacturers over 10 years to produce pack inserts for hand rolling tobacco only

Using the same methodology outlined above for option 2, the expected benefits for implementing option 4 include an additional 15,920 quitters, providing health benefits to the individuals that quit valued at £802 million.

Option 5: make it a legal requirement to include pack inserts in all tobacco products

The costs and benefits of introducing pack inserts into all tobacco products would at least be equal to that in option 2 (as inserts would be implemented in all tobacco products, including cigarettes and hand rolling tobacco). However, the costs and benefits of implementing this option would go beyond option 2 as it introduces inserts into all forms of tobacco such as:

• cigars
• cigarillos
• pipes
• chewing tobacco

It has not been possible to estimate the costs and benefits associated with these more niche forms of tobacco due to limited data available on the prevalence and consumption of these products.

Improving methods and estimates

We would be grateful for any further information or evidence that you think would help us to improve the methods we have used and the resulting estimates in the draft impact assessment through completing the questions below.

We would particularly like to hear from:

• manufacturers of tobacco products
• wholesalers of tobacco products
• retailers of tobacco products
• stakeholder groups
• small and micro businesses
• trading standards

The questions relating to the draft impact assessment are optional.

Questions

If you have any evidence to inform the estimated loss in profits for retailers, please provide details.

If you think there will be an impact on retailers that we have not currently accounted for (such as reduced footfall in shops) please provide details.

If you have any evidence to inform the estimated loss in profits for wholesalers, please provide details.

If you think there will be an impact on wholesalers that we have not currently accounted for, please provide details.

If you have any evidence to inform the estimated loss in profits to manufacturers, please provide details.

If you have any evidence to inform the cost of producing and implementing pack inserts, please provide details.

If you have evidence to inform the impact to manufacturers by mandating pack inserts, please provide details.

If you think there are any other stakeholder groups that would be impacted by introducing pack inserts, please explain who these groups would be.

If you have any data or evidence on the prevalence of use of other tobacco products (such as oral and pipe tobacco), please provide details.

If you have any evidence on the wider impact to small and micro businesses if pack inserts are mandated, please provide details.

If you have any evidence on whether pack inserts will affect different groups of people in different ways, please provide details.

If you have any evidence on the impact on competition of mandating pack inserts, please provide details.

If you have any evidence on the environmental impact of mandating pack inserts, please provide details.

Tobacco industry declaration

The UK is a party to the World Health Organization Framework Convention on Tobacco Control and so has an obligation to protect the development of public health policy from the vested interests of the tobacco industry.

To meet this obligation, we ask all respondents to disclose whether they have any direct or indirect links to, or receive funding from, the tobacco industry.

How to respond

You can respond to this consultation by completing the online survey on the Mandating quit information messages inside tobacco packs consultation page.

Next steps

We will review the responses, then working with the devolved administrations we will outline our next steps later this year on whether to mandate pack inserts.

We will aim to publish a response 12 weeks after the closing date.

Privacy notice

Introduction

This notice sets out how we will use the information we collect in this consultation, as well as your rights as a respondent under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).

Data controller

DHSC is the data controller.

What information we collect about you

When you respond to the consultation online, we will collect information on:

• whether you are responding as an individual member of the public or on behalf of an organisation
• the name of your organisation and where your organisation operates (if you are responding on behalf of an organisation)
• what sector you work in
• what the main focus of your work is

We also ask for some personal information, which we will collect if you choose to respond. This includes:

• your age
• where you live
• your sex
• your gender identity
• your ethnic group
• your email address
• whether you are a current smoker, an ex-smoker, or if you’ve never smoked

Please do not include any other personal information in your responses to free text questions in the survey.

How we use your information

We collect your information as part of the consultation process:

• for statistical purposes, for example to understand how representative the results are and whether views and experiences vary across organisations
• so that DHSC can contact you for further information about your response

If you have given consent, DHSC can contact you to allow you to amend or delete your response or to send you a reminder before the consultation closes if you have not submitted your final response.

Legal basis for processing your information

The legal basis for processing your information is to perform a task carried out in the public interest. In this case asking the public to provide evidence to answer a range of questions about tobacco pack inserts.

The legal basis for processing your special category data (in this case, personal data revealing racial or ethnic origin) is that it’s necessary for reasons of public interest in health or social care under article 9 of the UK GDPR. It helps us ensure that this consultation considers the views and experiences of different demographic groups and with different knowledge and experience of tobacco pack inserts. For more information, you can read this guide to special category data.

Who your information may be shared with

Responses to the online consultation may be seen by:

• DHSC officials running the consultation process
• DHSC’s third-party supplier (SocialOptic), who is responsible for running and hosting the online survey

Anonymised responses to the online consultation may be seen by officials from other government departments and the devolved administrations.

International data transfers and storage locations

Storage of data by DHSC is provided via secure computing infrastructure on servers located in the European Economic Area. DHSC platforms are subject to extensive security protections and encryption measures.

Storage of data by SocialOptic is provided via secure servers located in the UK.

How long we keep your information

We will hold your personal information for up to one year after the online consultation closes. Anonymised information will be kept indefinitely.

We will ask SocialOptic to securely delete the information held on their system one year after the online consultation closes.

How we protect your information and keep it secure

DHSC uses a range of technical, organisational and administrative security measures to protect any information we hold in our records from:

• loss
• misuse
• unauthorised access
• disclosure
• alteration
• destruction

We have written procedures and policies that are regularly audited and reviewed at a senior level.

SocialOptic is Cyber Essentials certified. This is a government backed scheme that helps organisations protect themselves against the most common cyber attacks.

Your rights

By law, you have a number of rights and processing your data does not take away or reduce these rights, under the UK GDPR and the UK Data Protection Act 2018.

You have the right to:

• ask for and receive copies of information about you
• get information about you corrected if you think it’s inaccurate
• limit how your information is used, for example you can ask for it to be restricted if you think it’s inaccurate
• object to your information being used
• get information deleted

Some of these rights might not apply when the information is being used for research. We will let you know if this is the case.

Contact us or make a complaint

We will always try to respond to concerns or queries that you have about your data.

If you are unhappy about how your information is being used, or if you want to complain about how your data is used as part of this consultation, you should email data_protection@dhsc.gov.uk or write to:

Data Protection Officer

39 Victoria Street

London

SW1H 0EU

If you are still not satisfied, you can complain to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO). You can find out how to contact them at the ICO website. Their postal address is:

Information Commissioner’s Office

Wycliffe House

Water Lane

Wilmslow

Cheshire

SK9 5AF

Changes to this privacy notice

We keep this privacy notice under regular review, and we will update it if necessary. All updated versions will be marked by a change note on the Mandating quit information messages inside tobacco packs consultation page.

References

Banks E, Joshy G, Weber MF, Liu B, Grenfell R, Egger S, Paige E, Lopez AD, Sitas F and Beral V. Tobacco smoking and all-cause mortality in a large Australian cohort study: findings from a mature epidemic with current low smoking prevalence. BMC Medicine 2015: volume 13, article number 38

Brown KF, Rumgay H, Dunlop C, Ryan M, Quartly F, Cox A, Deas A, Elliss-Brookes L, Gavin A, Hounsome L, Huws D, Ormiston-Smith N, Shelton J, White C and Parkin DM. The fraction of cancer attributable to modifiable risk factors in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and the United Kingdom in 2015. British Journal of Cancer 2018: volume 118, pages 1130-1141

Moodie C. Adult smokers’ perceptions of cigarette pack inserts promoting cessation: a focus group study. Tobacco Control 2018: volume 27, pages 72-77

Moodie C, Hiscock R, Thrasher J and Reid G. Perceptions of cigarette pack inserts promoting cessation and dissuasive cigarettes among young adult smokers in the UK: a cross-sectional online survey. BMJ Open 2018: volume 8, e019662

Thrasher J, Osman A, Abad-Vivero EN, Hammond D, Bansal-Travers M, Cummings KM, Hardin JW and Moodie C. The use of cigarette package inserts to supplement pictorial health warnings: an evaluation of the Canadian policy. Nicotine and Tobacco Research 2015: volume 17, issue 7, pages 870-875