Having long called for action on cigarette and tobacco packaging, I'm disappointed that the government has effectively kicked the issue into the long grass by announcing that 'more research is needed'.

The government’s lukewarm position on standardised packaging has been incredibly frustrating.

Australia introduced standardised packaging in December 2012, and the Republic of Ireland has announced that it will also introduce the policy by next year.

Both these countries seem convinced by the existing evidence.

So too is the Department of Health, which states in a 2013 review that:

‘compared to branded cigarettes, plain standard packaging is less attractive especially to young people, improves the effectiveness of health warnings, reduces mistaken beliefs that some brands are “safer”’ than others and is therefore likely to reduce smoking uptake amongst children and young people.[1] ‘

What more do UK ministers need to know?

Standardised packaging would remove the promotional and branding aspects of existing tobacco packaging which are appealing to some, and include strong anti-smoking and health messages.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the big tobacco companies have ploughed a lot of money into trying to influence the debate.

Japan Tobacco International, one of the big four tobacco multinationals, announced a £2 million advertising campaign against standardised packs in 2012.

Complaints about the misleading claims made as part of the campaign were recently upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority.

Here in Parliament, there is cross party support for standardised packaging.

Furthermore, in a recent vote in the European Parliament, member states were given the clear go ahead to introduce national legislation.

Smoking remains the leading cause of preventable deaths in the EU and it’s disgraceful that the UK government won’t take action now to adopt plain packaging and help save lives.