J
Minister
ceps
P8 Ministers
PRY
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND SOCIAL SECURITY Alexander Fleming House, Elephant & Castle, London SE1 6BY
Telephone 01-407 5522
From the Parliamentary Under Secretary of State for Health
The Rt Hon John Biffen MP
The Lord Privy Seal Privy Council Office Whitehall
London SW1A 2AT
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RECEIVED IN REGISTRY
2 4 JUN 1986
21876.
12 JUN 26
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Dear John,
DUCK OFFICHA INDEX
! REGISTRY
PA
Action Takon
TOBACCO PRODUCTS (HEALTH WARNINGS) BILL
You will be aware that 4 July has been named for the second reading of Mr Kirkwood's Bill. The Bill would make it a statutory requirement to put health warnings on tobacco product packs and related advertising and promotional material.
Health warnings on cigarettes are, of course, an important part of the voluntary agreement between the Government and the tobacco industry under which tobacco advertising and promotion in this country are traditionally controlled. latest such agreement, concluded in April this year, contains several new
The provisions intended to strengthen the health warning and improve its effectiveness. Inter alia, the agreement
a) replaces the old warning (Cigarettes Can Seriously Damage Your Health) with six new messages which include references to the main diseases associated with smoking and a quantified assessment of the health risk;
b)
requires the warnings to be used in rotation on posters and press advertisements and printed randomly on the side of cigarette packs;
c)
increases the space provided for the warning from 15 per cent to 171⁄2 per cent of the available area of posters and press advertisements; and
a) lays down more detailed rules for display of the warnings on shop window advertisements.
There are those who would like us to go still further by, for example, placing the health warning on the front of cigarette packs or using more strongly worded warnings, and these are likely to be among the objectives of Mr Kirkwood's Bill. However we are satisfied that the new voluntary agreement provides a strengthened means of warning the public of the dangers of cigarettes, and that the warnings will help reinforce the long term trend towards reducing
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