Guidance

Guidance for government engagement with the tobacco industry

Updated 19 June 2023

Purpose

This document sets out how the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) limits interactions with the tobacco industry, in line with the requirements of article 5.3 of the World Health Organization (WHO) Framework Convention on Tobacco Control (FCTC) and in accordance with the WHO Guidelines for implementation of article 5.3.

Also, since DHSC is the custodian of the FCTC for the UK government, we are providing guidance to all UK government officials on what action they should take to adhere to article 5.3. This guidance should be read and followed by all UK government officials who interact with either the tobacco industry or people who have affiliations with the tobacco industry.

The FCTC, including article 5.3, applies across the UK government, including:

• government departments
• arm’s length bodies
• agencies
• local authorities
• any person or organisation acting on behalf of the above bodies

This document should be used to support decision-making in organisations beyond DHSC to ensure that they meet their obligations under article 5.3. DHSC strongly encourages other departments and organisations to use this guidance to support their decision making. They can also use this guidance to draft their own guidance, considering their individual circumstances and recognising the full range of policy to which article 5.3 might apply.

This document builds on established measures that DHSC has put in place internally to limit interactions with the tobacco industry and ensure the transparency of the interactions that do occur.

Background

The FCTC is the blueprint for governments to adopt effective tobacco control. It includes both price and tax measures, as well as non-price measures, with the aim of reducing the demand for tobacco and giving priority to public health. The UK government was one of the first signatories of the FCTC and takes its obligations under the FCTC very seriously. The UK ratified the FCTC on 16 December 2004. In 2019 ratification was extended to Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey, and in 2020 to Gibraltar. As of April 2023, there are 182 parties to the FCTC.

In the FCTC, article 5.3 sets out how governments should interact with the tobacco industry:

In setting and implementing their public health policies with respect to tobacco control, Parties shall act to protect these policies from commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry in accordance with national law.

Article 1 of the FCTC defines the tobacco industry as “tobacco manufacturers, wholesale distributors and importers of tobacco products”. This includes, but is not limited to:

• organisations or individuals with commercial or vested interests in the tobacco industry
• those that receive funding from the tobacco industry
• those that work to further the interests of the tobacco industry, including organisations with directors from the tobacco industry
• tobacco growers
• associations or other entities representing any of the above
• industry lobbyists

WHO has developed Guidelines for implementation of article 5.3 to assist parties to the FCTC to meet their article 5.3 obligations. Parties have agreed by consensus that the guidelines reflect their consolidated view on how the FCTC obligations can be properly met. All parties to the FCTC have agreed that the measures set out in the guidelines should be followed in all branches of government, including local authorities.

UK government approach

There is a fundamental and irreconcilable conflict between the tobacco industry’s interests and public health policy interests. Government officials should exercise caution during interactions with the tobacco industry, in all cases.

When engaging with people who have links with the tobacco industry, all officials should be aware of their obligations under article 5.3. For the purposes of article 5.3 compliance, a trade body, association or other organisation with tobacco industry participation or funding would be considered to be part of the tobacco industry.

The UK government will not accept, support or endorse partnerships and non-binding or non-enforceable agreements, nor any voluntary arrangement with the tobacco industry or any entity or person working to further its interests. Departments should also not accept, support or endorse the tobacco industry organising, promoting, participating in, or performing, youth, public education or any initiatives that are directly or indirectly related to tobacco control.

Occasional interactions with the tobacco industry will be required to effectively regulate the tobacco industry and tobacco products. If interactions are required, these should be conducted with maximum transparency to demonstrate compliance with the FCTC (see the Publication section below). Such interactions should occur only when (and to the extent that is) strictly necessary, to enable effective regulation of the tobacco industry and tobacco products, and to protect and improve public health. One example may be to inform the tobacco industry of the technical details of new packaging requirements. There are example scenarios involving the tobacco industry below, with advice about how these should be navigated.

Meetings and events

While every effort will be made to avoid face to face meetings with the tobacco industry, on rare occasions a meeting may need to be held. An example may be a meeting to enable effective regulation of the tobacco industry and tobacco products. When deciding whether to meet with the tobacco industry, UK government officials should consider a range of questions including, but not limited to, the following.

1. What is the role of the tobacco industry or representative in the meeting?
2. What is the government’s role at the meeting?
3. Who is involved in organising the meeting?
4. Who is providing funding for the meeting?
5. Who is attending the meeting?
6. Where is the meeting being held?
7. What is the scope for informal, unstructured engagement with the tobacco industry, and how can this be avoided?
8. How could the interaction be perceived by other external stakeholders?
9. How can transparency be maintained throughout the meeting?

Before such a meeting, a clear agenda should be set, and no other items of business should be discussed other than those agreed in the agenda. When opening the meeting, the chair should remind attendees of the government’s article 5.3 obligations and should stop the meeting if these obligations are breached. Minutes should be recorded and published online.

UK government officials should not attend conferences or events which are organised by the tobacco industry. Officials are permitted to attend non-tobacco industry funded events where there are tobacco industry representatives in attendance, only if their attendance is for the purposes of:

• enabling effective regulation
• gathering intelligence to support effective regulation
• protecting and improving public health

If a UK official speaks at a conference or event where the tobacco industry is in attendance, they should always clearly set out the government’s responsibilities under article 5.3 in their presentation.

Finance

Voluntary or non-binding funding to support the work of departments or other public authorities should not be accepted directly or indirectly from the tobacco industry, under any circumstances.

Consultations

When undertaking a consultation on tobacco policy, respondents should be asked to declare any direct or indirect links to, or funding received from, the tobacco industry.

Publication

To ensure transparency in interactions with the tobacco industry, all UK government departments or bodies should publish:

• correspondence received from tobacco industry representatives
• replies sent to tobacco industry representatives
• minutes of any meetings

DHSC is committed to publishing commercially non-sensitive correspondences and minutes of meetings held with stakeholders. Publications will be redacted using the Freedom of Information Act exemptions. DHSC currently publishes relevant correspondence related to article 5.3 of the FCTC.

Support offered

As custodians of the FCTC in the UK, DHSC will provide support across government to ensure the obligations under article 5.3 are met. However, it is for individual departments and other public authorities to decide on how they comply with the FCTC. DHSC officials are happy to discuss the FCTC and its implications for public authorities when assessing and implementing their own measures to protect tobacco control policies from tobacco industry interference.

Due to the difficulty of identifying who is covered under the tobacco industry, who receives funding, and who is affiliated with it, we recommend using online tools such as the Tobacco Tactics website to support decision making. This can make it easier to identify any links with the tobacco industry. Officials should look carefully for evidence of an actual conflict of interest, because simply being named on the Tobacco Tactics website does not necessarily mean there is a conflict of interest. If there is no information on Tobacco Tactics, we encourage stakeholders to conduct further proportionate due diligence and research.

Example scenarios

Some example scenarios and recommended actions to take are set out below. The examples are grouped into 3 categories:

1. Do not engage.

2. Contact the DHSC Tobacco Control Team before engaging.

3. Engage following the guidelines set out in this document.

Do not engage

Example 1

An official is invited to speak at an event on corporate social responsibility and accepts the invitation. Shortly before the event is due to take place, it becomes clear that another speaker on the same panel has links to the tobacco industry.

Action to take: the official should decline the invitation to speak, stating this is due to obligations under article 5.3.

Example 2

Tobacco industry representatives have requested a meeting to discuss funding they want to provide for stop smoking services.

Action to take: this meeting should be declined, stating that under article 5.3 tobacco funding will not be accepted.

Example 3

Tobacco industry representatives request an endorsement of research findings that they have conducted.

Action to take: the request should be declined, stating that under article 5.3 no statement will be provided.

Contact the DHSC Tobacco Control Team before engaging

Example 4

An official is invited to meet with a vaping company, which is seeking to build regulatory compliance. The official is unclear if the company is owned by the tobacco industry.

Action to take: the official should contact the DHSC Tobacco Control Team who will provide advice on whether to accept or decline the invitation. If a meeting is agreed, the guidance on meetings and events above should be followed.

Example 5

An official is invited to meet with a retail organisation which receives funding from tobacco organisations.

Action to take: the official should contact the DHSC Tobacco Control Team who will provide advice on whether to accept or decline the invitation. If a meeting is agreed, the guidance on meetings and events above should be followed.

Engage following the guidelines set out in this document

Example 6

A UK government agency engages in a procurement process outside of public health, and finds that a prospective provider is partly owned by a tobacco company.

Action to take: the company will not be excluded from the procurement process, but any conflict of interest will be noted, and all necessary steps will be taken to ensure policy is protected from any industry interference.

Example 7

As part of a consultation on regulatory changes, responses are received from the tobacco industry.

Action to take: as part of the process for submitting their responses, respondents will have already been asked to declare links to or funding received from the tobacco industry.

Contact

If you need to contact the DHSC Tobacco Control Team, please email addictionspolicy@dhsc.gov.uk.

Annexe A: Framework Convention on Tobacco Control obligations

Summary of main points

Government should meet its obligations under the FCTC. Any actions that may conflict with the FCTC, locally or nationally, should be avoided.

Limit contact with the tobacco industry unless strictly necessary, such as in matters of regulatory significance. This includes any person or organisation that is likely to be working to further the interests of the tobacco industry.

All contact with the tobacco industry should be transparent, for example in public or in writing.

There should be no involvement or support in activities that promote the sale, export or import of tobacco or tobacco products.

Organisations should not invest in the tobacco industry or provide help to tobacco companies to secure incentives.

Organisations should not accept either direct or indirect funding from the tobacco industry, such as for community projects or capital investments. Payments, gifts and services, monetary or in-kind, offered by the tobacco industry can create conflicts of interest. They should also not accept invitations to attend or support a reception or high-profile event sponsored by the tobacco industry.

No endorsement of, or recommendations for, any tobacco industry organisation should be made, and care should be taken to avoid creating the impression that any such endorsement exists. Projects, activities or work funded directly or indirectly by the tobacco industry should not be endorsed and care should be taken to avoid creating the impression that any such endorsement exists.

Organisations should not endorse, support, form partnerships with, or take part in activities of the tobacco industry that could be described as ‘socially responsible’. For example, this could relate to public education or activities that are aimed at improving public health. Government logos (including local government logos) must not appear alongside the branding of any tobacco industry organisations, tobacco companies, or tobacco products.

Organisations should publish details of the meetings they have with the tobacco industry on their websites. To maximise transparency, organisations can correspond with the tobacco industry in writing and then make sure accurate records are made available for disclosure under Freedom of Information legislation.

Organisations should verify whether an organisation, body, group or institution that contacts them about tobacco control has any affiliation to or link with the tobacco industry. Organisations may wish to make any disclosed links transparent.

Annexe B: further information about the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

The Framework Convention on Tobacco Control

Tobacco is a uniquely dangerous consumer product. One in 2 long-term smokers will die from a smoking-related illness. This makes smoking the single biggest cause of preventable death in England, causing nearly 64,000 premature deaths each year. It is also one of the most significant causes of health inequalities. For these reasons, tobacco warrants special regulatory treatment and is regulated differently to other goods, for example through packaging requirements and specific taxes.

There is a natural tension between the public health aim to reduce smoking prevalence and the vested interests of businesses that profit from making and selling tobacco products.

These factors have led to the FCTC, to which the UK is a party. The FCTC was adopted by the World Health Assembly on 21 May 2003 and ratified by the UK in 2004. The FCTC entered into effect in 2005 and today over 180 countries are parties to the treaty. The FCTC is the world’s first public health treaty.

The FCTC is an evidence-based treaty that sets out obligations across a wide range of areas, including:

• taxation
• packaging and labelling
• education
• tobacco cessation
• illicit trade
• sales to minors
• protection from exposure to second-hand smoke
• the need to protect tobacco control policies from the financial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry

The FCTC guidelines

Parties to article 5.3 agreed the WHO Guidelines for implementation of article 5.3 to help them meet their obligations. These guidelines reflect the parties’ consolidated views of how best to implement the FCTC. The guidelines draw on evidence and the practical experience of the parties in handling tobacco industry tactics. They aim to ensure that efforts to protect tobacco control from the commercial and other vested interests of the tobacco industry are comprehensive and effective.

All parties to the FCTC, including the UK, agreed the text of the guidelines through consensus and that they should be implemented by all relevant branches of government. The agreed position is set out in the introduction to the guidelines and states:

The guidelines are applicable to government officials, representatives and employees of any national, state, municipal, local or other public or semi/quasi-public institution or body within the jurisdiction of a Party, and to any person acting on their behalf. Any government branch (executive, legislative and judiciary) responsible for setting and implementing tobacco control policies and for protecting those policies against tobacco industry interests should be accountable.

The tobacco industry and social responsibility

Recommendation 6 of the guidelines addresses the issue of how the tobacco industry use activities that can be described as “socially responsible” as part of their marketing and public relations strategies, which are ultimately aimed at the promotion of tobacco consumption. The recommendation is:

Denormalize and, to the extent possible, regulate activities described as “socially responsible” by the tobacco industry, including but not limited to activities described as “corporate social responsibility.

Under this recommendation, the guidelines explain that:

The corporate social responsibility of the tobacco industry is, according to WHO, an inherent contradiction, as industry’s core functions are in conflict with the goals of public health policies with respect to tobacco control.

The guidance makes a number of recommendations under recommendation 6, including that:

Parties should not endorse, support, form partnerships with or participate in activities of the tobacco industry described as socially responsible.

How article 5.3 obligations affect you

The UK government takes its international obligations under the FCTC very seriously. These obligations have a wide reach into the work of both central government (and its arm’s length bodies) and local government, especially given local authorities’ responsibilities for public health.

The international lobby promoting tobacco control is increasingly well organised. The article 5.3 guidelines recognise that civil society can play an important role in monitoring the activities of the tobacco industry. In the UK, the public health lobby (for example, Action on Smoking and Health and the Smokefree Action Coalition) seek to highlight any activity that appears to conflict with the FCTC.