Supporters

Supporters of Plain Packs

"This is unequivocally the biggest thing ever to hit the tobacco industry - the biggest threat it's ever faced. It's a policy about the next generation of kids who are coming through." Professor Simon Chapman
Sydney University
"I was pleased to help launch Europe's first major campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of glitzy tobacco packaging to children. I'm proud that this was launched in my constituency." Stephen Williams MP
Liberal Democrats
Chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group
on Smoking and Health, Bristol West
"Glitzy packs are used to advertise a product that evidence shows will kill one in two of long term smokers if used as the manufacturer intended. We welcome our Government's commitment to consult on the issue." Fiona Andrews
Director of Smokefree South West
"As the Vice Chair of the Heart, All Party Parliamentary Group and the Honorary President of Swindon's British Heart Foundation, I am 100% in favour of this!" Justin Tomlinson MP
Conservative, North Swindon
"Plain packs is going to be the biggest public health struggle we've seen for many years. It could turn off the tap for the recruitment of many smokers in this country." Dr Gabriel Scally
Regional Director of Public Health
"We're pleased that our Government is taking its commitment on plain packaging so seriously. This is essential if the UK is to be the first country in Europe to put tobacco in plain packs." Deborah Arnott
Chief Executive of Action on Smoking and Health ASH
"Smoking is a deadly addiction that kills half of smokers but many young people are simply unaware of this. Introducing plain packs would minimise the dangerous allure of cigarettes..." Fiona O'Donnell MP
Labour, East Lothian
"The tobacco industry spends millions of pounds on developing packaging which is designed to look cool and entice young smokers into a lifetime addiction that kills 100,000 people in the UK each year." Roberta Blackman-Woods MP
Labour, Durham
"I will certainly support any proposals that help stop people taking up the habit. The brightly coloured packaging is the only real way that tobacco companies can promote themselves to children." Dawn Primarolo MP
Labour and Deputy Speaker of the
House of Commons, Bristol South
"Smoking is a deadly addiction that kills half of smokers. Introducing plain packs would minimise the dangerous allure of cigarettes and reduce the chances of children starting to smoke." Kevin Barron MP
Labour, Rother Valley
"Glitzy packaging is an absurd loophole the tobacco industry takes full advantage of to lure in new young smokers. We must close it to protect younger generations from taking up this fatal habit." Betty McBride
British Heart Foundation
"Smokers start as children and continue as adults. Smoking is an epidemic that affects children and moving tobacco products into standardised, plain packaging is designed to protect them and is not about current smokers." Stewart Brock
NHS Somerset Public Health Specialist
"If we are to halt the smoking epidemic robust measures are necessary and putting tobacco in plain packaging will go along way towards achieving this goal." Elizabeth Shassere
Director of Public Health for Barnsley
"Plain packaging aims to ensure that packaging itself cannot act as an advert to youngsters tempting them into a highly-addictive habit that could seriously damage their health and lead to an early death. We urge people to participate in the consultation and make their views about plain packaging registered." Pat Riordan
NHS Director of Public Health for Berkshire East
"We all know that smoking damages heath – and it is obviously extremely important to make sure that young people are not led into smoking by attractive packaging." Oliver Letwin MP
Conservative, West Dorset
"This systematic review forms the basis for the UK wide consultation on whether plain packaging should be introduced. The studies we identified and describe in the review were remarkably consistent in their findings and clearly set out what effect plain packaging could have." Linda Bauld
Professor, University’s Stirling Management School
"I welcome this consultation as breaking the cycle and preventing children taking up smoking is the most effective way to reduce the use of tobacco and the long term damage it does to health." Jeremy Lefroy
Stafford MP, Secretary of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Smoking and Health
"Preventing children from starting is vital, and while plain packs won't stop everyone from starting, they will give millions of children one less reason to start."
Harpal Kumar
Labour, Durham
"Just over three dozen studies were identified and these show that plain packaging can help smokers in three ways: by increasing the prominence and effectiveness of health warnings; by making the pack, and thereby smoking, less appealing and removing the confusion about relative harm which pack design can cause." Gerard Hastings
Professor, University’s Stirling Management School
"This campaign aims to extend that protection post sale by ensuring the packaging itself cannot act as an advert to youngsters, tempting them into a highly-addictive habit that could seriously damage their health and lead to an early death." Felicity Owen
Director of Public Health for Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly
"There are too many people dying in Dorset each year as a direct result of their habit; and we welcome any moves to help protect people from the effects of smoking and to
de-normalise the habit." Dr Forbes Watson
Dorset Clinical Commissioning Group Chair
"Whilst there have been some positive steps forward in recent years, such as the ban on advertising tobacco, better health warnings on products and a ban on cigarette vending machines, it is right that we do more to reduce the uptake of smoking amongst young people. I am pleased that we are looking at innovative approaches, such as plain packaging, to achieve this." Dan Rogerson MP
Liberal Democrat, North Cornwall
"I would encourage people to help make plain tobacco packaging a reality in the UK by signing up to this online petition and letting their local MP know their views. No parent wants to see their child facing a premature death and anything that can discourage them from being tempted by cigarettes should be welcomed." Carolyn Rule
Cabinet Member for Health & Wellbeing and HR at Cornwall Council
"We need plain packaging because two thirds of smokers start before they are 18 and the vast majority while still teenagers. Every day roughly 40 young Scots become smokers." Shelia Duffy
Chief Executive, ASH Scotland
"Smoking accounts for over 100,000 deaths in the UK and one in two long-term smokers will die prematurely from a smoking disease. That is why the health ministers across the UK have a responsibility to look closely at initiatives that might encourage smokers to quit and stop young people taking up smoking in the first place." Andrew Lansley
Health Secretary

MEMBERS OF THE PLAIN PACKS PARTNERSHIP:

This campaign is being run on behalf of a group of leading charities and health bodies, called the Plain Packs Protect Partnership.

It's the first time a partnership of this stature and strength has joined forces to highlight the importance of plain tobacco packaging and the effect it will have on our children.

Smokefree South West

Smokefree South West works to tackle tobacco and drive down smoking rates across the South West of England. Together we aim to accelerate action to make tobacco use less desirable and accessible, and make smoking ‘history' for our children.
ASH Wales

ASH Wales is the leading voluntary organisation in Wales tackling the harm that tobacco causes to Welsh communities.
ASH Scotland

ASH Scotland is the leading charity campaigning for effective tobacco control in Scotland. We raise awareness about tobacco use and provide an expert information service, parliamentary lobbying, campaigning and training.
The British Heart Foundation

The British Heart Foundation is the nation's heart charity. Their vision is a world where people don't die prematurely from heart disease.

They'll achieve this through pioneering research, vital prevention activity and ensuring quality care and support for everyone living with heart disease.
Cancer Research UK

Cancer Research UK is campaigning for plain packaging to protect the next generation of children from tobacco marketing. The research is clear that plain packs make cigarettes less attractive to young people. Plain packaging won't stop everyone from smoking, but it will give millions of kids one less reason to start.
Deborah Hutton Campaignt

Cut Filmsis a peer-to-peer film and social media project from The Deborah Hutton Campaign educating young people about the dangers of smoking. Their annual film competition supports curriculum requirements.
Fresh

Fresh was the UK's first dedicated programme set up in the North East of England to tackle the worst rates of smoking related illness and death in the country, helping achieve the largest drops in England.
NHS Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training

The NHS Centre for Smoking Cessation and Training supports local stop smoking services to deliver high quality behavioural support by providing assessment, certification, training and continuing professional development for stop smoking practitioners.
Royal College of Physicians

The RCP is a professional body representing over 26,000 physicians that aims to improve the quality of healthcare and the health of the population by continually setting higher standards.
Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation

The Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation is the only charity in the UK wholly dedicated to the defeat of lung cancer.
SWERCOTS

The Trading Standards Partnership in the South West (known as SWERCOTS) aims to maintain and improve the quality, consistency and efficiency of services provided to consumers and businesses.
Tobacco Free Futures

Tobacco Free Futures' mission is to prevent tobacco related health inequalities and poverty, by breaking the cycle of addiction and exposure to tobacco and making smoking history for children.

ASH

Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) was established in 1971 by the Royal College of Physicians. It is a campaigning health charity working to eliminate the harm caused by tobacco.
ASH NI

ASH NI was established in 1973 by the Ulster Cancer Foundation (UCF) and campaigns on tobacco issues with local and international partners. The ASH (NI)/ UCF vision is a "Tobacco Free N.Ireland" and its activities include campaigns for and programmes to implement healthy public policy.
British Thoracic Society

The British Thoracic Society (BTS) is a registered charity and professional membership Society, with over 2,800 members. The BTS Stop Smoking Champions project is building on a Department of Health pilot programme. The programme aims to recruit Champions in all Acute Hospital Trusts to raise the profile of smoking cessation and to take a lead in developing Hospital Strategy on maintenance of the Smoke Free environment.
Chartered Institute of Environmental Health

The Chartered Institute of Environmental Health is a professional, awarding and campaigning body at the forefront of environmental and public health and safety.
Faculty of Public Health

The Faculty of Public Health is the professional home for more than 3,000 professionals working in public health. Their members come from a diverse range of professional backgrounds (including clinical, academic, policy) and are employed in a variety of settings, usually working at a strategic or specialist level.
National Heart Forum

The National Heart Forum is a charitable alliance of professional and public interest organisations working to reduce the risk of avoidable chronic diseases by developing evidence-based public health policy and supporting is implementation through advocacy and information provision.
Royal College of Nursing

The Royal College of Nursing represents nurses and nursing, promotes excellence in practice and shapes health policies.
Smokefree Lincs

The Smokefree Lincs Alliance is a multi-agency group from around Lincolnshire whose purpose is to lead in the process of implementing the Lincolnshire Tobacco Control Programme and the Smoking Cessation Action Plan.
Solutions 4 Health

Solutions 4 Health is an innovative company focused on the delivery of high quality and cost-effective telehealth & healthcare services that make a real difference to peoples' lives.
Tobacco Control Collaborating Centre

The Tobacco Control Collaborating Centre is an independent research and training organisation established by the Health Development Agency in 2004. Current work includes an audit of tobacco control practice in Mental Health services, work with midwives monitoring CO levels, tobacco control strategies for young people, tobacco control measures in acute hospital settings and smoking in the home.

* This number reflects the total amount of people who have signed up to support the plain packaging of tobacco products, via the Plain Packs Protect Partnership (logos below), British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK websites.