Guidance

Packaging of tobacco products

Information for retailers and distributors of tobacco products, enforcement agencies and the public on changes to tobacco packaging.

• From: Department of Health and Social Care
• Published: 20 May 2016
• Last updated: 19 April 2021
  Show all updates

  1. 19 April 2021

     Added 3 documents: 'Guidance for retailers, manufacturers and distributors of tobacco products, enforcement agencies and the public on tobacco packaging in Great Britain', 'Guidance for retailers, manufacturers and distributors of tobacco products, enforcement agencies and the public on tobacco packaging in Northern Ireland' and 'Tobacco and herbal product packaging rules: checklist'.

  2. 4 January 2021

     Updated with information on the packaging of tobacco products following the end of the Brexit transition period on 31 December 2020.

  3. 24 June 2016

     Annex has been updated with a new set of images of graphic health warnings.

  4. 26 May 2016

     Added a new document, Tobacco and herbal packaging rules: quick guide

  5. 20 May 2016

     First published.

Documents

Changes to packaging requirements for tobacco products: quick read

HTML

Guidance for retailers, manufacturers and distributors of tobacco products, enforcement agencies and the public on tobacco packaging in Great Britain

PDF, 862 KB, 36 pages

Guidance for retailers, manufacturers and distributors of tobacco products, enforcement agencies and the public on tobacco packaging in Northern Ireland

PDF, 1.09 MB, 34 pages

Tobacco and herbal product packaging rules: checklist

PDF, 222 KB, 4 pages

Details

This guidance provides an overview of the rules on the retail packaging of tobacco, and herbal products for smoking.

The rules follow the Standardised Packaging of Tobacco Regulations 2015, Tobacco and Related Products Regulations 2016 including amendments made by the Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products (Amendment) (EU Exit) Regulations 2020 and the Tobacco Products and Nicotine Inhaling Products (Amendment etc) (EU Exit) Regulations 2019.

The rules also implement some of the Tobacco Products Directive (2014/40/EU) for Northern Ireland.