LONDON — Until recently, the British government appeared to be on the verge of rejecting sweeping restrictions on cigarette packaging. But on Thursday it changed course, announcing a policy review that could lead to curbs on labeling and require the use of neutral colors on packages.
Suzanne Plunkett/Reuters
The British government is reviewing cigarette packaging rules it had been expected to reject.
The effort is the latest in a series of health initiatives across Europe meant to force the tobacco industry to make cigarettes appear less attractive to younger people, and in that way prevent them from taking up the habit.
Britain's inquiry, which would conclude by next March, will focus on the experience of Australia, which has introduced standardized packaging. Similar plans may soon be adopted in Ireland and New Zealand.
This could mean that brand names would be restricted to a limited display in uniform fonts and that the color of packs would be standardized in Britain.
Such measures would go further than new minimum requirements currently being legislated by the European Union, which wants to increase the size of health warnings to 65 percent of the pack size, up from the current minimum requirement of 30 percent on the front and 40 percent on the back.
Under the European legislation, which is now being completed, the use of fruit and menthol flavorings for cigarettes would be banned, as would packets of fewer than 20 cigarettes. This would aim at packs of 10, which are seen as more affordable for teenagers.
Britain's move to study tougher labeling guidelines took many by surprise. While the government had officially said it would keep an open mind on the adoption of standardized packaging, all the signs earlier this year were that it had slipped off the legislative radar.
But on Thursday Jane Ellison, a junior health minister, told lawmakers that with the onset of the anniversary of the passing of legislation in Australia, "new evidence is emerging rapidly."
"We must do all we can to stop young people from taking up smoking in the first place," she said, adding that each year in England more than 300,000 children under the age of 16 try smoking for the first time and that most smokers start before they are 18. The new inquiry will be headed by a prominent pediatrician, Cyril Chantler, Ms. Ellison added.
Some libertarians dislike, on principle, the idea of such curbs being imposed by the state. One Conservative lawmaker, Philip Davies, on Thursday dismissed ideas like plain packaging as "idiotic, nanny-state proposals."
Luciana Berger, speaking for the Labour Party, in the opposition, accused the government of a "shambolic" U-turn, arguing that it had been forced to change course because of pressure in the House of Lords, Britain's upper house of Parliament. Amendments to one piece of legislation have been proposed there that would have given ministers the power, though not the obligation, to impose packaging regulations.
The Labour Party also suggested a link between the government's earlier reluctance to introduce standardized packaging and the role of Lynton Crosby, an election strategist for Prime Minister David Cameron's Conservative Party. Mr. Crosby has worked as a consultant for the tobacco industry.
That claim was rejected by Mr. Cameron in July, when he seemed to put the packaging issue on the back burner.
Ireland's draft legislation would outlaw forms of branding like trademarks and logos on cigarette packs and would determine the size and positioning of the health warning. The name would be presented in a uniform typeface for all brands, and the packs would all be in one plain, neutral color.
"Cigarette packs have been described as the last billboard for the tobacco industry," Ireland's health minister, James Reilly, said in a statement this week. "This legislation will force the industry to show with greater clarity the potential devastating effects of smoking on health."
"As it stands the tobacco companies use packets of various shapes and colors to attract young people to take up the killer habit," he said.
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